Ties That Bind
by Shadepyre
Summary: Upon the awakening of Sora's heart, those who were trapped within have been freed. However, it seems that something is amiss...
1. Prologue I - Awakening

Awakening

* * *

**-Roxas-**

* * *

He opened his eyes and found himself gazing up at a star-strewn sky shot with swirls of pink and gold. Strange; he had been seated in Yen Sid's chambers speaking with Riku only moments before. It was a very uncomfortable sensation, though one with which Roxas not entirely unfamiliar. Rather, this was becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence; having become one with Sora, whether the latter had wished it or no, Roxas spent the majority of his waking hours as an ever-present audience to Sora's actions. It was an odd feeling to share a body with another consciousness, especially when Roxas' own control of that body was essentially nonexistent. Over time, he had discovered that he could force thoughts and impulses upon Sora, though he had no say in whether Sora acted upon those feelings.

Recently, however, Roxas had begun experiencing lapses in his awareness. It always began as a sensation that he could only liken to drowning in darkness; his peripheral vision would begin to grow dim, his hearing would become muffled, and he would suddenly find himself in a different place. Sora, as far as Roxas was aware, had never noticed these episodes.

_Though there's a lot that Sora doesn't notice, _he mused, thinking of the shy looks that Kairi often cast in his direction when Sora was otherwise preoccupied.

_Oblivious._

Roxas frowned at the stars hanging overhead; he couldn't have said from where it originated, but he was suddenly beset with the nagging suspicion that he was forgetting something important.

...

_Extremely important._

The vague silhouette of a slender, frail figure cloaked in shadow swam to the forefront of Roxas' thoughts.

_Xi...Xion?_

Roxas felt a jolt somewhere deep within his stomach that wasn't entirely dissimilar to missing a step while walking down the stairs. He was surprised to find that his vision was suddenly becoming blurry; his bewilderment only grew when he felt a single tear winding its way down his cheek.

_Xion? Who… is Xion? Why does that name make me feel so…_

He tried to grasp the image as it floated past in his mind, but it merely twisted into a younger version of Kairi that he had discovered within Sora's memories before dissolving completely.

Confused by the unfamiliar sensation, Roxas wiped at his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position. When he did so, he realized several things very quickly; first, that he was in Twilight Town. The clock tower where he had spent so many of his sunsets eating sea-salt ice cream with… with…

_Axel. But he's… I saw it through Sora. And then we... we talked one last time before he disappeared. He's gone._

The knowledge was like a dagger in Roxas' heart.

_ Was there… someone else? A third person?_

He felt as though there had been one other... someone else with whom he had built a relationship. He found himself wondering idly about the name that had come to him unbidden as he lay in the plaza gathering his thoughts.

_Xion huh?... I wonder if we were friends._

Reluctantly, he pushed the matter to the back of his mind. He couldn't even begin to think of how he would go about verifying such a thing.

Roxas was brushing the fresh fall of tears from his eyes when he realized something of which he already been passively aware: somehow, he had been returned to his original body. A quick inspection confirmed it; the tail of the coat from his time in the Organization was pooled on the ground around his legs and he felt the familiar weight of the hood resting just below his neck. The rip just above the right knee from his brief skirmish with Riku was present as well. Roxas reached up and pulled a handful of stiff blonde hair down in front of his eyes.

_Blonde, not brown. So I'm really…_

No sooner had Roxas reached the conclusion that he was unquestionably back in his own body than he began to worry about Sora. He wasn't sure what this turn of events could mean. Was Sora alright? Had he been injured or even killed, thus freeing Roxas from his heart? And then there were the other presences that had dwelt in Sora's heart; if Roxas had somehow been returned to his physical form, then it stood to reason that the others had been set free as well.

_Ven… I wonder if he looks as much like me as he claims. And the other. I wonder if I'll know it when I see it, or if it'll know me._

The third presence residing within Sora's heart had been secretive and distant with both Roxas and Ven; both had tried to engage it in conversation but it had always simply retreated into some deeper confines of Sora's heart. That game had grown old after the first few weeks, so Roxas and Ven had given it up as nothing more than an interesting anomaly; the presence kept to itself and rarely seemed to try to exert any influence over Sora. Rather, it seemed to be content with spending all of its time absorbed in his memories. Both Roxas and Ven found that to be vaguely worrying, but the presence seemed to harbor only innocent curiosity so they had left it to its own devices.

Deciding that there was nothing to be done but to find the others, as well as Sora, Roxas pushed himself to his feet and shook out his coat. He briefly considered making his way to his friends' old hangout to see if they were there – he wanted desperately to see the three of them again – but decided against it when he realized that, this being the real Twilight Town, they were unlikely to recognize him. Beset by an odd pang of longing and loss, Roxas entered Central Station alone. Having little information and no leads upon which to base his investigations, he was of a mind to speak with the one person who he thought might have some insights regarding what had happened. Truth be told, he had never stood before Yen Sid _in person_, and thus he was unsure that the wizened old sorcerer would recognize him, but...

_I wish Axel were here._

* * *

*** Revision 1.2**

*** AN: Hi there! I really, really wanted to give Roxas, Xion, Axel/Lea, and (possibly) Ventus some closure, and this feels like a good start. I can't say how long this tale will be as I'm not entirely sure myself, but I can promise that it won't be a measly four-or-five chapter affair. Please be aware that while the majority of the situations in the following chapters will contain content suitable for a T rating, later scenes will push those boundaries enough that straying into Mature territory becomes a very real possibility. As such, I chose Mature as the rating for this story more out of a sense of precaution than as an evaluation of its average content level; if you're expecting chapter after chapter of Roxas and Xion performing raunchy sex acts that require great agility and some measure of skill in acrobatics, look elsewhere. I don't write lemons just because I like lemonade.  
**

**With all of that being said, if heavy character development, attention to oft-disregarded nuances such as body language, and extensive dialogue sound like ingredients you would enjoy seeing in your fanfic gumbo, I'll do my best to deliver. Thanks for reading, and I hope that you enjoy _Ties that Bind._ ^^**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	2. Prologue II - Lingering Pain

Lingering Pain

* * *

**-Xion-**

* * *

"It was no easy thing that you did... Given the circumstances, it is not, I think, unexpected for his memories to be somewhat unstable."

_But it still hurts. It still hurts so much…_

That pain had been as much a part of Xion as she had been a part of Sora for the past several months. She had shared the accommodations with Roxas, to be sure, yet she had kept his presence at an arm's length; he had no memory of her and talking to him would have been too painful to bear. So she had fled. Whenever Roxas had approached her, Xion had maintained her silence and dove deeper into Sora's heart, far away from light and noise, far away from the one who had once been her best friend. She supposed that, eventually, she would have to confront him. As much as she feared what it would do to her heart to speak to Roxas and not see the warmth of recognition and confidentiality in his eyes, she desperately wanted to reconcile with him. She had so many things to apologize for; so many things that she should have said; so many things that she had made him do. She had known at the end, as she had lain dying in his arms, that he had a heart, and that she had broken it.

So when the memories of their friendship began to fade away like grains of sand slipping through her fingers, Xion had done nothing to stop them.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the pain had only worsened. It had grown and festered until it became the only thing in her world; it completely consumed her, smothering her with guilt and the regret of things undone and words unspoken.

Perhaps that was what had triggered the abrupt expulsion from Sora's heart. Yen Sid certainly seemed to think so, for he had been the first person Xion had sought after waking up on the station steps in Twilight Town. At first she had merely told him about her time with the Organization, why she had been created, and, without going into much detail, that she had been spared that fate. However, after hours of carefully-worded questions and strained silences, something had broken, and Xion had found herself confessing everything to Yen Sid: how much Roxas had meant to her and what she had done to him; the pain that had been growing within her; how she suspected that she was responsible for whatever had happened to Sora's heart; how kind Roxas had been; how lonely she was; how much fun she had had with Roxas; how it had completely shattered her heart to see recognition flare in Roxas' eyes just before she died, only to be replaced with horror and shock and panic and pain.

In the silence that followed, Yen Sid had asked her what, above all else, was giving her the most pain. That, he had said, was what needed to be addressed before the matter of Sora's heart could be given further consideration.

So she had told him.

"It's… It's that Roxas- you don't understand," she had tried to explain. "He was my absolute best friend. I cared about him more than I have ever cared about anyone and… and he felt the same way about me. I knew that for certain when he… when he killed me. So I guess it's… that… I still care about him so much. He's still my best friend. There are so many things I want to tell him that I'll never be able to because he doesn't remember me. He doesn't… all of those memories we made are gone forever. And I… I could have stopped it. When we were both within Sora's heart, I knew exactly what was happening and I knew exactly how to stop it. But I didn't. I let it go because it… it'll be easier on him this way. It'll be easier if he doesn't have the guilt of… of…"

She had trailed off into silence, unable to finish.

After a moment, Yen Sid had responded, as he always did, with a concise, brusque summary of the situation as he saw it.

"It was no easy thing that you did... Given the circumstances, it is not, I think, unexpected for his memories to be somewhat unstable." After watching her for a moment, he added "yet… I would not be so quick to say that such things are gone forever. Sora's heart… is unique. It has a remarkable ability to heal and to mend… and to restore. Ties of the heart are not easily severed. If you wish for my advice, then listen well, for I shall only give it once: locate Roxas, for I have no doubt that he was expelled from Sora's heart as well, and then the two of you seek out Sora, wherever he may be. This is not an area in which I have particular expertise or experience, but perhaps mere proximity will trigger some reaction. I doubt it will be that simple, but if not, you will at least be that much closer." He shifted uncomfortably in his throne. "… It would be to your benefit to locate Ventus as well. It is somewhat worrisome that he has not come to me yet, and-"

Yen Sid was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yen Sid?" called a horribly familiar voice from the other side. "Do you have a moment? It's Roxas. We… have some things to talk about."

Xion whirled toward the door in a panic. She had managed to keep her emotions under control thus far, but this... She wasn't prepared. She wasn't ready. She had known before speaking to Yen Sid that she would inevitably have to confront Roxas, but for it to be this soon...

_No. _

_No._

_No, no, not yet. I'm not ready. I don't know what to say, how to act. How will he react when he sees me? He'll know that I know him, so I can't… but what do I tell him to-_

"Ah, Roxas… yes," rumbled Yen Sid, gazing at Xion dispassionately. "We were expecting you. Do come in. There's someone I would like for you to meet."

* * *

***Revision 1.2**

***AN - Cleaned this one up a bit; Xion ended up coming across as slightly more fragile, emotionally, than I originally intended, so that's been corrected. More to come!**

*** Characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	3. Pleased to Meet You - Part I

Pleased to Meet You – Part I

* * *

**-Roxas-**

* * *

The journey from Twilight Town had been wholly uneventful, a fact for which Roxas was duly grateful. He had taken the opportunity to reflect on the few things that he knew for a certainty: he had been separated from Sora with little warning, all of his memories from his time within Sora's heart seemed to be intact, and he had regained his old body. He was less sure of the other worries that plagued his thoughts: was Ven safe? Had he been separated from Sora as well? What about the other presence? Having no answers, Roxas had sought out the one person whom he thought might be able to help, barring King Mickey or Sora himself.

So it was that Roxas found himself standing before the moon-and-star door that marked the entrance to Yen Sid's private chambers. Ignoring the faint murmur of conversation drifting through the oak, Roxas grasped the knocker and rapped on the door.

"Yen Sid?" The conversation halted abruptly. "Do you have a moment? It's Roxas. We… have some things to talk about."

Hearing the faint rumble of Yen Sid's voice telling him to enter, Roxas pushed open the door and stepped into the brilliantly-lit chamber, squinting against the sudden harshness of the light. He noticed Yen Sid immediately, looking as gruff and imposing as ever… and then his gaze slid to the side and fixated on what seemed to be a girl in black coat identical to his own. She was gazing determinedly at her feet and seemed, to Roxas, to be deliberately avoiding his gaze. Her shock of raven-black hair seemed vaguely familiar, as did the way she held her half-clenched hands stiffly at her sides. Something stirred within Roxas' memories, and all at once it seemed that the silhouette he had recalled shortly after awakening in Twilight Town was superimposed over the girl who stood before him.

Roxas frowned at Yen Sid, who, standing off to the side with his hands clasped behind his back, looked as though he had no intention of interfering. Roxas looked back to the girl, wary. He knew this girl; he was as sure of that as he had ever been of anything. He knew her, and she knew him. Yet he couldn't recall her name. He was unsure of what kind of relationship they had, but from her body language, Roxas got the impression that she currently harbored no desire to see or speak with him. He suspected, however, that he actually knew exactly what her name was, even if he had no memories with which it was connected.

Unable to bear the sight of her obvious discomfort any longer, Roxas steeled himself and took a tentative step forward.

"... Xion?"

* * *

*** Revision 1.2**

***AN - Splitting this one in two for the sake of clarity. **

***All Characters and locations are property of Square Enix and Disney unless otherwise noted.**


	4. Pleased to Meet You - Part II

Pleased to Meet You – Part II

* * *

**-Xion-**

* * *

The silence had dragged on for what seemed like an eternity. Xion was acutely aware of the way her heart was thundering against her ribcage; in the heavy silence that hung over the room, it sounded like nothing so much as gunfire. Her thoughts felt frenetic and scattered. She had an impossibly vast list of things she wanted to say, yet she found herself unable to do anything other than stare dumbly at her feet.

_What do I say? Hello Roxas, my name is Xion. You might not remember, but you killed me a few months ago. Let's be friends._

She squeezed her eyes shut and barely managed to suppress a groan. She hadn't had nearly enough time to think about what to say. She wasn't prepared.

_And Yen Sid knew that! He knew and yet he still told Roxas to come in like nothing was-_

"… Xion?"

Xion's head snapped upward in surprise… and there stood Roxas. The clear blue eyes that she had known so well were narrowed with a mixture of suspicion and concern. She looked away self-consciously.

_He doesn't know me. _She had known that, of course, but the confirmation felt like yet another dagger in her heart. _He doesn't know me, but… he knows my name. He recognizes me. Roxas recognizes me. _She couldn't even begin to imagine how strange of a sensation that must have been. She supposed that it might have been something like seeing someone you recognize in an old photograph, but not being able to name them…

_But this has to be so much worse._

Xion took a deep, steadying breath and managed to call forth something akin to a smile.

"Roxas," she began, "do you… remember anything about me? Anything at all? If not, that's… I understand, but if you can recall anything, no matter how insignificant you might think it is…"

_Please…_

* * *

**-Roxas-**

* * *

When her head snapped upward in surprise, Roxas knew that his intuition had been correct.

_So this is Xion… She looks awful. Miserable._

… _Idiot, because I'm supposed to know her. Of course she would look like that. _

Roxas felt indescribable sadness for the girl who stood before him. When her gaze had briefly met his own only to quickly dart away, he knew that she had been looking for some hint of…

_Recognition?_

Roxas supposed that he did recognize her in a sense. Now that he had put the two together, he was absolutely certain that the girl who stood before him was Xion. The name itself still brought with it a swell of emotion that he was unable to explain, but that only served to further cement his conviction that he knew her.

_Xion._

_Xion._

_This is Xion. _

His first concern upon coming to the conclusion that they did in fact know each other was that of their relationship. Had they been friends? Rivals? Enemies? Roxas highly doubted that they had been enemies. He supposed that he could simply ask her, but…

He was trying to think of a tactful way to broach the subject when Xion surprised him by asking a question of her own.

"'Roxas… do you… remember… anything about me? Anything at all? If not, that's… I understand, but if you can recall anything, no matter how insignificant you might think it is…'"

Roxas smiled sadly, his heart breaking for her.

"I'm sorry Xion, but… I don't remember anything. I feel…" he felt his face beginning to redden and redirected his gaze to the ceiling. "I feel… emotion when I hear your name. I can't say what kind of emotion it is exactly, but… it's like… a mixture of happiness and contentment followed by unbelievable sadness. I don't know if that's what's left of my memories, but… it feels like we were friends. Best friends."

Xion offered no reply.

Roxas lowered his gaze and found that she was staring at him in silence. Frustrated and faintly embarrassed, Roxas turned away from her, thinking.

_I'm really bad at this._

"... Give me a few minutes," he said wearily. "It's really... this is a lot to take in, you know? I'll be outside, so you two can..." he gestured vaguely, then started walking toward the door. He had only made a few steps' worth of progress when something crashed into his back, nearly knocking him off his feet. He felt arms clamp around his waist. Warm breath tickled the back of his neck.

Startled, he turned his head as best he could and found himself looking down upon a shock of raven-black hair.

"X.. Xion? What are you...?"

* * *

***Revision 1.2**

***AN - Once again, I've edited this chapter to bring Xion's QQ down to a reasonable level. I also increased Roxas' Intelligence stat by two points.**

***All characters and locations are property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	5. Pleased to Meet You - Part III

Pleased to Meet You – Part III

* * *

**-Xion-**

* * *

_Stop it. Don't look at me like that. You never looked at me like that._

Xion wasn't entirely unfamiliar with looks of pity; she had received them often enough from the other members of the organization.

_But not from Roxas. Never from Roxas._

And so it was that Xion's last vestige of hope crumbled beneath that gaze. She didn't need to hear Roxas' answer to her question; she was now certain beyond all doubt that every last memory the two of them had made together had been destroyed. They were, as far as Roxas was concerned, complete strangers.

_And it's my fault. I let this happen._

The specter of guilt that had been coiled about her heart since the day of her death tightened its embrace ever so slightly. For the first time, Xion gave serious thought to escape; as frightened as she had been of having to face Roxas with the knowledge that he would be unlikely to recognize her, a part of her had wanted to see his face again, to hear his voice, and to see with her own eyes that he was alright. So when he had appeared before her unannounced, she had allowed herself to hope. She had allowed herself to hope, despite having overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that when she met those clear blue eyes that she knew so well, she would see the warm glow of recognition and confidentiality that she had grown so accustomed to.

Instead, she had found pity from someone who recognized her only at some fundamental level and felt sorry for her out of courtesy. She wanted nothing more than to retreat into the deepest recesses of Sora's heart: into the crevices that only she knew where his most precious memories dwelt. There, she had had smiles to provide her with warmth and light; laughter had been her constant companion. When she had tired of that, she had watched a thousand breathtaking sunsets fade into a star-strewn sky. The joy contained within those memories had made her feel less lonely for a time, yet she had always found her thoughts drifting back to Roxas.

_And here he stands. This is going splendidly. Is he going to answer me? He doesn't really need to at this point, but…_

Xion felt a stab of annoyance, though she knew that it was unjustified. Finally, Roxas seemed to find the words he had been searching for and gave her an answer.

"'I'm sorry Xion," he began, "but… I don't remember anything. I feel…"

Xion blinked in surprise at the way his face suddenly took on a faint flush. That happened whenever he was debating saying something that he found embarrassing, she knew; it was the first mannerism he had directed at her that was recognizably Roxas. Dreading the rest and being unable to bring herself to risk a smile, Xion kept her face impassive. After a moment's hesitation, Roxas continued.

"'I feel… emotion when I hear your name. I can't say what kind of emotion it is exactly, but… it's like… a mixture of happiness and contentment followed by unbelievable sadness. I don't know if that's what's left of my memories, but… it feels like we were friends. Best friends.'"

Xion blinked in surprise. She was unsure of how to react. She was fairly certain that he was saying such things in an awkward, Roxas-y attempt to make her feel better, but she couldn't bring herself to dismiss the fact that her name contained within it an emotional anchor that Roxas had been able to identify; that part, at least, she believed was sincere. It was, she suspected, indicative of fragments from memories that had been largely erased. They were likely to be more of a hindrance than aid when it came to the possibility of restoring the memories Roxas had lost, but it was, Xion felt, a positive sign. That single detail improved her mood significantly. She was thinking of how best to breach the topic when Roxas muttered something about needing a few minutes to himself and started toward the door.

_What? Why? What are you-_

Something stirred within her heart, and suddenly she was staring into indigo eyes alive with panic. Disoriented, it took a moment for Xion to realize that the hand desperately reaching out into the darkness beyond belonged to Sora. Across from him, Kairi was teetering perilously close to the precipice of an island surrounded by darkness, reaching out with a kind of frantic desperation for Sora's hand. The gulf between them continued to widen as the memory faded and Roxas' retreating back came into focus.

_Oh no you don't._

Then she was running.

Paying little mind to the scowl of disapproval and increasing impatience on Yen Sid's face as she swept past him, Xion slammed into Roxas' back in a half-tackle, half-hug and managed to keep her feet only by throwing her arms around him. Only when he looked over his shoulder in surprise did Xion remember that, to Roxas, she was currently little more than a stranger. She planted her face firmly in the back of his robes to hide her embarrassment.

_Well, this is a good first impression._

"… Roxas," she said after a moment, "I know that you don't remember me. I know that. But… I remember you. You were… you are my absolute best friend. I want to be with you again, even if… even if we have to start from scratch. If that's the case, then that's what we'll do. You are far… far too important to me for me to just give up and let you walk away because I don't like the situation. We'll find some way to restore your memories. I don't know how, but… we'll find a way. So just… until then…"

* * *

**-Roxas-**

* * *

"Until then," Roxas suggested, "if you could not squeeze me so tight, that'd be a good start. I can't breathe." He tried unsuccessfully to prise open her arms and had to settle for twisting his body into a more comfortable position, though the improvement was negligible.

_Merlin she's strong._

"Xion…" he began, "If you completely understand that I don't remember you, and that you can't expect me to suddenly remember all of the time we spent together, then I'm fine with us being friends. I would like to be your friend, actually. You seem like a good person. Just… you seem like you've hurt over this… a lot. I don't know what I said or did that our friendship meant so much to you but… ha, this is a lot of pressure you know?"

Roxas grinned and patted one of the arms clamped around his waist.

"But… I think I understand. If I do or say anything insensitive, just hit me. I learn best that way. So... I guess that just leaves introductions, huh? For one of us, anyway." He made another attempt at prising apart her arms, failed, and settled for patting one of her hands in a mock handshake.

"My name's Roxas, though I get the vague impression that you already knew that. Pleased to meet you. _Now can you please let go?" _he added in a whisper._ "I appreciate this situation for what it is, but I think my ribs are about to break."_

* * *

***Revision 1.1**

***AN - Xion 1.4 is now available for pre-order. I still have a bit of cleaning to do on this chapter, but it already reads a lot more smoothly than it did. More to come!**

***All characters and locations are property of Square Enix and Disney unless otherwise noted.**


	6. Bond

Bond

* * *

**-Roxas & Xion-**

* * *

_I've missed you so much._

Giggling at his distress, Xion released Roxas and took a step back. When she realized that she was giggling – honestly, sincerely giggling like a child for the first time since her expulsion from Sora's heart, it resolved into laughter.

_He has to think I'm crazy._

"I'm s-… sorry Roxas," she managed between fits, "but it's just… that reaction. I know you don't remember, but I used to surprise you like that sometimes when you got off work. The first time I did it, your reaction was exactly the same."

_Come to think of it, we were kind of touchy-feely weren't we? Roxas never seemed to think anything of it, but those looks we would get from Axel sometimes… I wondered. _

Roxas, having finally recovered enough to speak, straightened and replied with a warm smile.

"Well, I bet that helps your feelings then. Were you expecting me to be grossed out or something?"

Behind them, someone cleared their throat impatiently.

"Well… no," replied Xion, "but we're not friends right now, so I thought it might be kind of… I didn't really think before doing it, and after I grabbed you I realized…"

"Hold on, what do you mean we're not friends right now?" interjected Roxas. "I thought we just agreed that-"

"**Are you two quite finished yammering at each other?"** boomed a voice from the far side of the room, making them both jump. **"Youth,"** it spat with disdain. "I thought the two of you came here to seek my guidance regarding a very, very important matter that was of grave consequence to you both. If you wish to slowly but surely fall in love with each other, feel free to do so. Elsewhere. Otherwise, I would like to begin our discussion about this sudden upheaval that occurred within Sora's heart some twelve hours ago… if you believe that you can disentangle yourselves from each other long enough to give the matter serious thought."

Roxas and Xion blinked in surprise and looked at each other.

"_Hey, Xion…" _whispered Roxas loudly enough for Yen Sid to hear, _"I think Yen Sid is jealous. I'm sure he gets lonely up here so I can't really blame him. What do you think?"_

"_I think something is wrong with your sense of self-preservation," _replied Xion. _"But that aside, we really do need to figure this out. Don't offend him any more than you have to."_

She marveled at how easily they had begun to slip back into their old mannerisms. Although she knew that such a thought was folly, Xion allowed herself to believe for the briefest of moments that their friendship had never been interrupted. It was an achingly beautiful thought, yet she knew that she had to release it and focus on the reality of the situation if they were to have any hope of restoring Roxas' memories.

Yen Sid glared at the two of them for a moment before launching into his reasoning as though there had been no sally.

"First… we must consider what we do know about the current… predicament. The two of you, and presumably Ventus, have once again become separate entities from Sora. Ventus can be thought of as an outlying factor for our purposes. The damaged remnants of his heart were absorbed by Sora when he was very young; however, while I have no doubt that his heart played a large part in shaping Sora's character, the two can safely be considered completely separate entities. Sora is whole without Ventus' presence, so the possibility that we might have to seek a way to return him to Sora's heart is not one that we need concern ourselves with.

"… which brings us to the two of you. Roxas, you are Sora's Nobody; you were born into this world when Sora turned the keyblade on himself to release his friend's heart. However, you are unique among Nobodies in that you seem to have a heart of your own. While I cannot be completely certain, I feel that there is no immediate need for you to return to Sora. We will simply have to monitor the situation until we're sure of what, if any, action needs to be taken."

Yen Sid shifted his gaze to Xion.

"And so, we come… to the puppet. A husk created by husks in order to…" Yen Sid glanced to Roxas for the briefest of moments before returning his gaze to Xion. "… well… it is not for me to disclose. Suffice to say that both the method of your creation and the means for which you were created are at odds with your nature; moreover, while your abilities are, unless I am gravely mistaken, derived from another, you possess still others that were not intended… and thus we find ourselves in our present situation. For your sake, I will not put my deduction into words, but you know precisely of what I speak."

Xion gazed at Yen Sid warily; his meaning was not lost upon her. She managed a weak nod while Roxas, utterly lost, frowned at her with concern.

"And so," concluded Yen Sid, "I stand by what I said previously; the two of you should seek Sora out, wherever he may be, and we shall see what happens. If you should happen to meet Ventus along the way, that is all to the better. I shall contact the king in the meantime; he is surprisingly knowledgeable about matters of the heart. … Though, now that I think on it," he added enigmatically, "I suppose that he would be."

He scowled at Roxas and Xion, irritated by way they had furtively shuffled closer together during his monologue. "As I said… elsewhere. Away with you. You might begin your search on the Destiny Islands; that is the place, I believe, that Sora feels the most comfortable, and so that will likely be the first place he seeks in his disorientation. I will let you know if I discover something in the meantime."

With that, Yen Sid turned away toward the window, dismissing them.

*** AN - Poor Yen Sid. With memorial day weekend coming up, the next chapter might be a bit delayed.**

**Also, if you guys want to leave reviews for any chapter or the work as a whole, feel free. Any/all criticisms are welcomed.**

**All characters and locations are the property of Square Enix and Disney unless otherwise noted. **


	7. Hearts Aflame - Part I

Hearts Aflame – Part I

* * *

**-Roxas & Xion-**

* * *

Xion was unable to recall ever having watched a sunset that had seemed so beautiful. They had returned to Twilight Town upon leaving Yen Sid's tower at Xion's suggestion; she had wanted to watch at least one sunset with Roxas from their old spot before their journey took them elsewhere. It was a desire driven by nostalgia, yet Roxas' surprise when Xion had purchased two bars of sea-salt ice cream and held one out in supplication had quickly melted away when he realized the implications of that gesture; though he might have no recollection, Xion had been someone in whom Roxas had expressed a profound, genuine interest that exceeded the boundaries of a mere acquaintance. She had been indescribably grateful to witness that moment of realization; she had presented Roxas with evidence – solid, irrefutable evidence other than her words and his intuition – that the two of them had been the closest of friends.

So it was that sunset found them seated upon the precipice of the clock tower that dominated Twilight Town's station plaza, sea-salt ice cream in hand, each silently enjoying the other's company. All things considered, Xion found it remarkable that Roxas had seemingly been able to warm up to her so quickly. She suspected that he was putting forth so much effort in an attempt to make her feel that their relationship was the same as it had been previously. It wasn't, as they were both aware, but she appreciated the gesture all the same. It was exactly the kind of thing she had suspected he might do, and she loved him for it.

_If you only knew how many times I dreamed of this, how desperately I wanted it. _

For Xion had often dreamt of happier days as her soul slumbered within Sora's heart; when awake, she would wrap herself in his memories to keep the loneliness at bay, but whenever the time came to loosen her grip on awareness and drift into the numb stillness that passed for sleep… then, and only then, did she ever feel some measure of contentment. However, nightmares had sometimes found her in that place, and Xion would find herself gazing up into Roxas' bloody, beaten, tear-streaked face as she lay dying in his arms. It was after waking from these memories that Xion would feel the guilt and regret of her actions the most keenly. More than once she had screamed into the darkness, begging to see Roxas again, pleading with every fiber of her being, but if something in that endless void had heard her plea, it had not answered.

Afterward, Xion would find herself wishing just the opposite: that Roxas would not remember her, would have no desire to remember her, and that he would be able to exist in peace without having to bear the misappropriated guilt of killing her. It was a convoluted maelstrom of emotion that had threatened to overwhelm her, choking her with pain, until-

"Xion?"

Xion flinched and looked over at Roxas in surprise, then jumped again and drew back in surprise when she saw how close his face was to her own.

"Are you alright?" he asked innocently. "You've been kind of spaced out for a while. Does your ice cream taste weird or something?" He frowned at it in suspicion. "We can swap if you'd like. I wouldn't mind."

"No… no, the ice cream tastes alright," replied Xion, "so you can have the rest if you want it. I was just… thinking about things. I know that I've already asked you this, but are you sure you're okay with us just suddenly being so… familiar with each other like this? You've said that you don't remember me and I believe you, so for you to suddenly have to act like-"

"Xion," said Roxas, gently interrupting her, "it's fine. You're overthinking this. The fact that we're sitting here like this, in this place, eating ice cream together and talking to each other about something this personal… why would be doing any of that if we weren't friends? Your problem…" he added, pointing his ice cream at her in admonition, "is that you're stuck on this idea that we're suddenly no longer friends just because I don't remember everything we did together. That's silly."

Smiling, he returned his gaze to the sunset and put his free arm around Xion's shoulders, pulling until the side of her head was pressed against his own.

"I like you, Xion, and that's all that matters. Stop worrying about it."

Xion blinked in surprise at the warmth in Roxas' words, as well as the warmth of his body suddenly pressed against her own.

_This person._

It made her feel slightly ashamed to have her deepest fears so effortlessly trivialized and dismissed. It also made her feel indescribably grateful. She was about to say as much when she heard quiet footsteps approaching from behind. Roxas, oblivious, had started to make another inquiry about her ice cream when a tall, slender figure cloaked in the black robes of the Organization rounded the corner of the clock tower and halted, gazing at them from within the folds of its hood. After a moment, it reached up and lowered the hood, shaking out a mane of flaming-red hair that seemed to blaze with a sudden fire in the glow of the evening sun.

* * *

***AN - :D **

**All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted. **


	8. Hearts Aflame - Part II

Hearts Aflame – Part II

* * *

**-Roxas, Xion, and Axel/Lea-**

* * *

Roxas' head snapped toward the newcomer in surprise, and then several things happened in very quick succession. Xion was shouting something in his ear, but Roxas ignored her and scrambled to his feet, flinging his arm out to the side to summon his Keyblade. Panicking, Xion jumped to her feet as well and grabbed a fistful of his robes; one almighty yank later, the two of them lay in a tangled heap while the cloaked figure looked on in bewilderment.

"Roxas, wait!" shouted Xion once again, "I know what you're thinking, but something's not-"

"Who are you?!" demanded Roxas, talking over her. "Why do you look so much like Axel? What is this?"

The figure frowned in mock disappointment. "Who am I?" it asked. "Come on Roxas, you know better than that. How can you- oh it's the eyes isn't it? Yeah, seems those marks were exclusive to my Nobody. It's kind of a shame, you know? I liked them. They added character."

"Your… nobody?" replied Roxas. "So that means… but you should be a heartless. How do I know you're not? And if that's the case, why do you remember me? How do I know this isn't some… some cruel trick or-"

The figure sighed in exasperation and started rummaging through its robes. "I figured this might happen," it explained, "so I brought… one sec, let me… here we go." It produced a short, thin stick that had previously held a bar of sea-salt ice cream. Though somewhat faded by time, the phrase 'Winner!' was clearly visible along the length of the wood. The figure grinned and tossed the stick to Roxas, who caught it.

Silence settled over the clock tower.

Roxas was dimly aware of a burning sensation beneath his eyes. That was all the warning he received before the word 'Winner!' dissolved behind a veil of tears that tasted of salt. He looked up at the figure in disbelief, unable to think of which question to ask first. Seeming to sense his distress, the figure laughed aloud and said, "Well, it looks like that did the trick. Sorry for making you cry in front of your girlfriend, but, well…"

He grinned. "We couldn't have her thinking that you're manlier than you really are, you know? Now are you going to untangle yourselves and scoot over or are you going to make me stand while I eat my ice cream?"

A few minutes later, Roxas, Xion, and Axel were seated upon the precipice of the clock tower as in days of old. The situation felt incredibly surreal to both Roxas and Xion, each of whom had had many a nostalgic daydream of the sunsets they had spent in each other's company, though in Roxas' case Xion had been wholly replaced by Axel. As they watched the sun slowly sink behind the horizon, however, Roxas felt utterly at peace, and knew at last that Xion had formed an irreplaceable part of their trio.

_My girlfriend though?_

It was an odd thought. Had they been that close? Axel seemed to know her, so perhaps he knew something that Xion had withheld from him.

"Say, Axel…" Roxas began, but Axel cut him off with an exasperated sigh.

"It's Lea now. Axel is gone, remember? Lea. L – E – A. Got it memorized?"

"Fine, fine… Lea," said Roxas, grinning, "I was wondering… when you said that Xion was my girlfriend, did you really mean…?"

Behind him, Xion choked on her ice cream and launched into a particularly violent coughing fit.

Lea blinked in surprise. "Xion? Nah, I was just messing with you. I'm kind of jealous that you're friends with such a cute girl, but…" he frowned. "Why are you asking me something like this? You're in a much better position to know that kind of thing than I am, partner. It's like you….. Ah…... Ah. I see. So that's the deal." Lea frowned at Xion; Xion replied with a glare of warning. "Well," he continued, "that's a tough situation, but I think you'll be alright." He flashed Xion a very clear 'We-need-to-talk-in-private-later' look before returning his gaze to the sunset. "So where are you two headed? And do you have room for one more?" He stretched languidly. "I don't each much, I'm house-broken, I'll fetch your newspaper… and I'll even give the two of you some alone time every day, but no more than two hours. One isn't enough and three is too much, you understand, but two… two seems like a good number." He looked past Roxas to Xion and grinned. "Deal?"

* * *

***AN - Lea is not amused. More to come!**

**All characters and locations are the property of Square Enix and Disney unless otherwise noted.**


	9. Hearts Aflame - Part III

Hearts Aflame – Part III

* * *

**-Xion, Lea, and Roxas-**

* * *

Xion and Lea watched each other warily. Roxas, having exhibited an uncharacteristic ability to read the mood, had descended the clock tower to purchase more ice cream, leaving the two of them alone. The door that opened into the stairwell had scarcely swung closed when Lea turned his gaze onto Xion, unsmiling, and received an impassive stare in return.

"You know…" he offered after the heavy silence had dragged on for some time, "I _am_ glad to see you, whatever the circumstances."

"Likewise," replied Xion with the ghost of a smile. "But… let's get this over with. I owe you an explanation, and Roxas as well… Roxas especially. But he'll have to wait. Now isn't the time."

Lea stared incredulously. "Now isn't….. man oh man…" He pinched his temples in irritation. "Xion, what you're doing is wrong. You know it, I know it, and Roxas would tell you the same thing if he knew. You're being tremendously unfair, don't you think? You're using him."

"Use- I'm not using him!" protested Xion hotly. "I'm just…"

"Just what? Waiting? What d'you think will happen when his memories return? Or do you have some grand scheme to stop that from happening?"

Xion felt her face reddening. "That's not it all, Axel! Do you think… Do you think I enjoy knowing that all of the time the three of us spent together is _gone? _Do you have any idea how much that hurts? Of course I want Roxas to regain his memories!"

"So you say," replied Axel, "but I'll ask you again: what do you think will happen when Roxas regains his memories? What do you think he'll feel when he realizes everything you've been keeping from him? Do you think he'll thank you? I don't. I think he'll feel betrayed and used. I would. While you're thinking on that, let me ask you another question. Do you understand why my memories related to you are intact? They returned when my Nobody was destroyed and my heart merged with my original body. Think about that for a moment. I don't claim to know exactly how this current situation came to be, but it's a very real possibility that Roxas will have to return to Sora to-"

"No."

Lea faltered and fell silent in response to the way Xion rose to her feet before him, head bowed. She was trembling slightly, he saw.

_Maybe I said too much. That was kind of..._

"… Look, Xion," he began, but she raised a hand, forestalling him.

When she raised her gaze to his, Lea felt for a moment as though he was gazing into bottomless pools of darkness; he had never seen such anger and desperation in Xion's eyes as he found there now. He swallowed, unsure of what to say.

"No," she repeated in an icy voice. "If that's what has to happen, then Roxas will continue without his memories. You have no… _no _idea how much pain I've suffered knowing that he… that we…"

She felt tears beginning to pool beneath her eyes and rubbed at them angrily.

"It's lonely in the darkness, Axel… so, so lonely… I thought I would suffocate from the… the… and I… Roxas…" She took a calming breath. "When we met after we were released from Sora's heart, I was terrified. _Terrified. _I was meeting the person who had been my very, very best friend, yet he didn't remember me. He… not a single thing. I knew that that was going to… to be the case before he ever walked through that door, but it still hurt more than you can possibly imagine. But do you… do you know what happened, Axel? That person… Roxas told me that it didn't m-matter if he couldn't r-rem-member anything about me because we were- were still… f-… f-…"

Xion stopped speaking in one last valiant attempt to bring her emotions under control, but Lea kicked that effort to splinters when he closed the distance between them and pulled her into a protective hug as he had so many times before. Then the last of her restraint crumbled away and she found herself sobbing into Lea's robes as he rubbed her back in sympathy.

"Not easy, having friends," he said.

"Not… not easy," she agreed. "Axel I'm… I'm so… so sorry. You're right, what I'm doing isn't… right. It isn't fair to Roxas. I should tell him, but… but..."

"But it hurts," finished Lea. "You're frightened that he'll feel betrayed, that he won't trust you anymore, that he'll hate you, that you lose him again… that kind of thing, yeah?" Xion nodded into his robes. "Well…" he continued, "he might not understand everything at first, and he might not appreciate you having kept something like this from him, but… I really don't think Roxas is the kind of person who would abandon someone, especially someone he considers to be a friend, because of something like a miscommunication."

"A miscommunication," said Xion flatly, her voice muffled. "Axel, I made… I made Roxas kill me. I attacked him, not with killing intent, but I acted the part well enough that he felt that his life was in danger, so he killed me. When I'm… When someone defeats me in battle, their memory of me starts to decay. You know that from firsthand experience. I don't entirely understand why, but… it was just a passive ability that was instilled within me when I was created. But… something went wrong and Roxas recognized me after he… while I was… just before I died, he held me, and I saw recognition ignite in his eyes moments before I… You can't imagine the pain I saw there. It broke my heart, and it… I know it broke his as well. Later, when we had been reabsorbed into Sora's heart, I was a separate entity from Roxas. I thought that was strange considering my… what I am, but I found that I was able to… to manipulate memories… and not just Sora's," she added guiltily. "So… I saw to it that Roxas' memories of me were completely and utterly destroyed." She felt Lea's arms release her, then return a moment later. A hand continued tracing slow circles between her shoulder blades. "That was… that was hard, but at the time I felt that it was the best way to shield him from the pain of loss and the knowledge that he was partially responsible for my death. After that, though… Like I said, the darkness is a lonely place. It's cold, vast, empty… It didn't take long for me to realize how badly I missed…. And that pain only grew. It grew and festered until it became the only thing I knew.

"I think that was when we were expelled from Sora's heart. I don't know if it was some subconscious reaction to carrying around that much pain, or… but that's the conclusion I've come to.

"So," she finished, "there you have it. I'm the one responsible for all of this. I tricked Roxas into killing me. I erased his memory of our time together, of our friendship. I hurt Sora's heart in such a way that he could no longer bear our presence. Gods alone know what effect that's had on Sora. I've hurt… I've hurt so many people. I've withheld all of this from Roxas because I don't want him to hate me. I just want… I want things to be the way they were. I want the three of us to be friends and… and to eat i- ice cream together and… so please," she pleaded, pulling away enough to raise her head, "don't tell Roxas what I've-"

She found herself gazing into clear blue eyes not a foot away.

Her eyes widened in shock and fear. She tried to break free but Roxas only tightened his grip, smiling enigmatically. She saw Lea hovering in the background working on a bar of ice cream. When he noticed her looking at him, he grinned apologetically and gave her a mock salute with his ice cream.

_No… no no no please no this isn't what I wanted. This isn't how I wanted you to find out. I don't want this, please… I'm sorry, don't…_

Terrified, she returned her gaze to Roxas' eyes and there found the very last thing she had expected: amusement.

"Wh… Rox…" was all she was able to manage.

Roxas made a show of sighing in exasperation. "Would you mind not looking looking at me like that? It makes me feel unbelievably guilty."

"Everything makes you feel guilty," intoned Lea. "You have a woman's heart." He threw up his hands in mock surrender when Roxas flashed him a glare over his shoulder. "What?" he added. "I could keep calling you a zombie if you feel that's less offensive."

Roxas made a noncommittal noise in his throat as though to say he would think on it and returned his gaze to Xion.

"Xion…" he began, "I don't know the circumstances, and I hope you'll explain them to me some day, but did I… did I really kill you?" She nodded tremulously. "Were we enemies?" She shook her head. "Was I really, really mad at you about something?" She scowled, visibly upset that he wasn't treating the matter more seriously. "I'm joking. Well, it sounds like a complicated situation then. Let me rephrase the question. When I, uh… when I killed you, did I hate you? Did I want our friendship to end?"

"N-no…" she replied.

"Well then, did you want our friendship to end? Did you hate me?"

"No!" she replied emphatically. "I didn't… I could never…"

"I'm standing right here Xion, you don't have to shout," said Roxas in a deadpan tone that earned him another scowl. "But, well… if all of that's true, why were you so afraid of just telling me and explaining everything like you just did?"

Xion stared blankly. "Why would I… do you ever think about how other people feel?" Lea snorted in the background. "Of course I would be scared. In fact, I just told you exactly why I didn't want to bring it up. Well… I mean, I guess I thought I was telling Axel, but you know what I mean." Her face reddened.

"Hah, see? I'm more trustworthy than you," jabbed Lea. "Probably because I don't mope around like a zombie. You need to work on that if you want a girl to-"

"I'm not paying for your ice cream next time," said Roxas without looking away from Xion. "And if you keep it up, you'll pay for Xion's and my own as well."

Xion looked up, confused. "Next time?" she asked. "What do you mean, next time? After all I've-"

Roxas tilted his head to the side slightly. "Huh? Yeah, next time. Xion, if you're worried that I'm going to abandon you… that's not going to happen. We're friends. I'm not saying that I appreciate having my memories taken from me without my knowledge; I don't, and though I sort of understand why you did it, it still seems kind of selfish."

Xion lowered her gaze in shame.

"But…" Roxas continued, "our first priority right now should be to find Sora and see if he's alright. I don't… Xion, look at me," he said gently. When she did, he smiled and said, "I have no desire to return to Sora's heart, and I don't want you to have to either. I'm kind of hurt that you were keeping so much from me, I'll admit, but we're still friends, and... well, I don't know a lot about friends myself, but… I think it's alright if they hurt each other sometimes."

Xion nodded wordlessly as Roxas pulled her into a tight hug. She returned the gesture gratefully. They stood like that for a long time, silent as the sun slowly sank behind the horizon. When they finally broke apart, the sky had faded to a pale indigo streaked with stars and Lea was standing by the door to the stairwell, arms folded and foot beating an impatient rhythm as he considered everything Xion had told him. There were some parts that didn't match up with his own conclusions, as well as several points that made no sense at all; he didn't want to think that Xion would reconcile with the two of them even while holding onto her lies, but...

The stairwell, having no means of illumination other than the moonlight streaming in from the windows far above, was dimly lit. Yet even in the semi-darkness that limited his vision to no more than a few feet, Lea was easily able to see the way Roxas and Xion furtively yet deliberately brushed up against each other as they made their way down the stairs. It irked him. There was a moment about halfway down the tower when Xion slipped on some unseen piece of debris and was only saved from a headlong tumble down the stairs by Roxas' hand darting out to grab her own. Thereafter, they continued their descent hand in hand.

The sight made Lea feel strangely lonely.

* * *

***AN - The trio is finally reunited, though all isn't as it should be. Now the real story begins. :D  
**

***Review Responses***

**I hope that answers your question, sir Guest. ;D  
**

**Nikaidou - I've been looking forward to writing both Axel and Roxas. They're really fun to play off each other. And thanks, I'm glad that you find my writing enjoyable. ^^**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Square Enix and Disney.**


	10. Downpour

Downpour

* * *

**-Roxas, Xion, and Lea-**

* * *

He had always had good reflexes. So when the twisted, malformed claws composed of naught but writhing darkness changed course mid-swipe and arced toward his neck, Roxas was ready. He fell backward into a half-crouch and brought his Keyblade up in a retaliatory backhand swing that passed through the heartless' arm like silk, severing it. A brief flurry of slices later, the heartless dissolved into a cloud of oily darkness that evaporated into the night. Exhausted, Roxas allowed the tip of his Keyblade to fall to the rain-slicked cobblestones and sat down with a muffled splash. Behind him, he heard Xion do the same.

"Hey… Xi- Xion, are you alright?" he asked after he had caught his breath enough to speak.

"Yeah… yeah I think," she replied. "You?"

"I'm fine," said Roxas. He pushed a mat of sweat-slicked hair away from his eyes and glanced around Traverse Town's central plaza, still breathing heavily. "I don't… I don't see Axel though."

"I'm fine," came a sullen voice from somewhere off to the side. "Wet though. I hate the rain. And heartless. It's like someone knew I was coming and said 'hey, let's prepare a smorgasbord of things that Lea doesn't like.'"

Roxas and Xion laughed weakly.

"Well," said Roxas, "I was kind of wondering when this would happen; we do still have Keyblades after all."

"We do," agreed Xion, "but with everything that's happened… I didn't think there would still be this many Heartless roaming free."

"It is weird," admitted Roxas, "but… for now, let's just get out of the rain. I'm freezing." He pushed himself to his feet with some amount of difficulty and turned to offer a hand to Xion, who accepted it with a tired smile. When she was on her feet, Roxas looked around the plaza once more and spotted Lea standing beneath an overhang at the mouth of an alley; he was holding a square of cardboard over his head and looked thoroughly miserable.

"'Let's go to Traverse Town,' he said," mocked Lea. "'We're not sure that Sora will really make his way to the Destiny Islands, so let's stock up on supplies first,' he said." Axel glared. "'We won't need supplies if he's actually at the Destiny Islands,' I argued, yet here we are."

"… Well," said Roxas upon deciding that coming up with some clever response would require more effort than he was currently willing to invest, "let's head to that inn I guess. I don't remember what it's called, but I think they have a small shop downstairs; we should be able to find something to wear until our clothes dry."

* * *

**- Some time later -**

* * *

"It wouldn't have been my first choice, but…"

Xion twisted about to examine herself in the mirror. She wore thin sky-blue robes patterned with creamy-white swirls and flourishes. The sleeves, wide and overlong to her tastes, hung just below her waist when her arms were at her sides. The hem of the robe, separated from the upper portion by a loosely-tied cream-colored sash, came to a halt just below the top of her thighs, which were now covered in loose, baggy shorts of the same creamy white coloring; they reminded her vaguely of something that Roxas might wear. The clerk had all but forced a pair of snug-fitting slippers on her as well ('they're an indispensable part of the set, you see'), so those had found their way onto her feet as the clerk smiled and bowed repeatedly.

_It's not that bad, I suppose. It really highlights how pale my skin is, though... _

So it was that Xion exited the fitting room and found both Roxas and Lea seated in plump, faded armchairs that faced the door. Lea's hair was still wrapped in what could only have been a wad of bath towels, she saw, making him look like nothing so much as an overlarge mushroom, and Roxas seemed, from the way his head was tilted to the side, to be sound asleep. Lea glanced up when she appeared, blinked in surprise, and gave a low whistle that made Roxas snort and twitch in his sleep.

"Well well," he said, "don't we look fancy? And here I thought that Roxas and I would be hogging the spotlight for the foreseeable future."

Xion grinned sheepishly. Roxas and Lea were wearing matching robes of a simple pinstripe-and-wave pattern; Lea's robes were colored black and silver with red swirls whereas Roxas' were white cream with sky-blue swirls. Roxas' robes, Xion noted, were slightly too big for him and hung somewhat loosely about his neck. She also seemed to notice that the coloring of her outfit matched Roxas' at the same time as Lea, the latter of whom sighed in resignation. Xion giggled.

"Hey, mud-for-brains," yawned Lea, stretching and poking Roxas in the shoulder. "Xion's finished. Wake up so we can go to bed."

Roxas muttered a sleepy complaint and opened his eyes reluctantly. He blinked lethargically when he saw Xion standing before him in her new outfit, made a noncommittal noise in his throat, and started to fall back to sleep. Lea sighed again and punched him in the shoulder with enough force to briefly rock his chair onto two of its legs. Startled and visibly annoyed, Roxas awoke with a grunt and tried to return the punch, which Lea caught in his fist.

"Geez… you're a handful, you know that?" he said. "Come on now, up. Let's get out of here before that old man tries to force anything else on us."

"Fine… I'm a-… I'm aw- wake…" yawned Roxas, pulling his hand from Lea's grasp. "Where's Xion? Did she find anything to…" He looked around in a daze and found Xion standing not ten feet away. "Ah. So that's what you went with?" He eyed her up and down unashamedly while Xion frowned in suspicion.

"What?" she asked defensively.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. That outfit looks nice and all, but… man, your skin is really, really pale, you know? You need to get some sun or something."

Xion stared at Roxas.

Lea stared at Roxas.

Roxas frowned in confused at the sudden ire.

"What? All I said was-"

"… I'm going to bed," sighed Xion. "Goodnight Axel."

"'night," replied Lea as Xion swept from the room. When the door had closed, he turned a disappointed frown upon Roxas.

"Roxas," he began. "… I know that you're not very… sensitive to these things. But I'm going to ask you anyway. If a pretty girl who you like and who you're fairly sure likes you shows up for a date in a new outfit, what do you say?"

Roxas stared blankly.

"… I would tell her that the outfit… ah, well… I would tell her that she… looks good in the outfit?"

"Correct," admitted Lea. "Anything else?"

Roxas considered it for a moment, and then said, "No. I mean, I guess the next thing would be to ask her where she wanted to go, but… Axel? what's wrong?"

Lea's head was bowed as he massaged his temples in frustration.

"Roxas," he began, "you…" he struggled to find a way to put voice to his thoughts, but had to settle for shrugging and clapping Roxas on the shoulder.

"Well, you'll figure it out eventually. I know that you can't be totally clueless, so… it'll work itself out." When Roxas merely continued to stare at him with a look of utter bewilderment, Lea sighed and added, "I'm headed to bed as well, I think. Goodnight partner. If you're staying up, try not to make too much noise when you come to bed." He rose ponderously to his feet, reached up to steady the towel wrapped around his hair, and departed for the staircase that lead to the men's rooms.

Alone at last, Roxas sighed and placed his hands behind his head. He closed his eyes for a time, thinking. The reality of the situation was that he knew very well what Lea was trying to tell him. He was also fully aware of his own feelings for Xion, though he wasn't yet entirely sure how best to address them. He was reasonably sure that Xion felt more affection toward him that was appropriate for mere friends, yet he found that he wasn't entirely uncomfortable with it. Having had exactly zero experience in this particular area, however, Roxas was afraid to do or say anything that could endanger their recently-repaired friendship.

_This is giving me a headache._

Only when the store owner came bustling over to insist that he go to bed did Roxas rouse himself from his chair and trudge off toward the men's rooms, lost in thought. Lea was snoring loudly when Roxas opened the door, his hair still wrapped in the absurd cocoon he had constructed out of bath towels. Smirking at the thought of what that tangled, matted mess would look like in the morning once the towels were removed, Roxas unrolled his futon and slipped inside. It had been, he thought, a very tiring day. The sudden heartless attack in the plaza hadn't been entirely unexpected, but there had been so _many_ of them… And then, having gotten through that unscathed… Xion had shown up in that... in that...

Roxas felt his face begin to redden.

It wasn't until much later that his thoughts scattered into the darkness and sleep finally took him.

* * *

***AN - And so it begins. :D**

**All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	11. Drops of Jupiter

Drops of Jupiter

* * *

**-Roxas & Xion-**

* * *

Hazy, transient shapes swam in and out of existence within Roxas' dreams; tails of half-forgotten lullabies and half-remembered promises swirled through the sleepy darkness in their wake, scattering into nothingness when Roxas tried to grasp them. He had encountered dreams of this nature with increasing regularity since he and Xion had been reunited. It was, he suspected, his mind's way of trying to mend the severed connections that had been his memories of their relationship. It was a frustrating experience to have to sit through every time he closed his eyes in sleep, but if there was a way to prevent it, he had not yet found it.

So when Roxas opened his eyes and beheld slashes of fiery sunlight fanning out across the ceiling from the half-shuttered window, he sighed in quiet appreciation and began to squirm out of his futon. The room, he quickly noticed, was still bathed in the pale blue half-darkness that one often saw just before dawn. Murky, indistinct shapes crowded together along the walls. Taking extreme care not to trip over Lea, still snoring loudly, Roxas began to quietly make his way toward their bags; they had set them against the wall just inside the door so that they would be out of the way when they rolled out their futons the night before.

He had nearly made it to the door when his bare foot brushed against something soft and oddly warm. He froze.

His thoughts muddled by drowsiness, Roxas stood silent and unmoving, unsure of what to do. He couldn't seem to make his brain work.

_Axel. I'd better not… but… Axel is asleep over there. …. Maybe it's… do the owners have a cat? Maybe it's a cat. But why would it be in here? Is there a hole in the wall somewhere? I didn't see one last night, but… I hope it didn't get into our stuff. …. But… cats have fur. Well, most cats do. So, logically… hang on… this can't… alright, this can't be a cat so…._

…

_Wait a minute._

_Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute._

_There's no way that-_

Xion coughed and sniffled in her sleep. Roxas groaned.

_... Ah._

Confused, Roxas crouched down and hesitantly felt around in the darkness until his fingers brushed against skin.

_She's warm._

He frowned.

_Really warm._

"… Xion?" he whispered. "Hey, can you hear me?" He felt around until he found her shoulder and gently shook her. "Xion. Wake up."

She muttered a sleepy complaint and tried to push his hand away but ended up simply covering it with her own. She sniffled again.

Roxas, quickly growing more concerned, reached out and shook her with his other hand, harder.

"Xion," he said more loudly. "Can you hear-"

"I can hear you just fine, Roxas," murmured Xion hoarsely. "Now shut up and let me-" She coughed again. "-let me sleep. I don't feel that great."

"… Ah," said Roxas, unsure of how else to reply. "Well… what are you doing in h-… I mean, are you alright?" He recalled the things that Lea had talked to him about the night before and felt himself blushing unduly. "I mean, can I get you anything or-"

"Roxas…" sighed Xion, interrupting him. "I'm fine. Just… don't worry about me." She succumbed to brief coughing fit. When she had caught her breath, she added, "You'll make me feel worse if you keep me awake running your mouth."

"Well… okay, if you're sure," said Roxas reluctantly. In the relative silence that followed, he realized that the snoring had stopped. A glance over his shoulder revealed Lea's silhouette sitting against the wall beneath the window, legs crossed, trying valiantly yet unsuccessfully to drag a comb through his hair. When he noticed Roxas' head turned in his direction, Lea shrugged in defeat in tossed the comb to the floor.

"Hey…" began Roxas, "you know that Xion-"

"Yeah… Yeah I know," yawned Lea. "She woke me up when she came shuffling in here around two. Said the old man downstairs let her pass without issue when he saw the state she was in."

Roxas returned his gaze to Xion. In the slowly lightening room, he was just able to make out the counters of her face and the vague outline of her hand upon his. Her hair, he could tell, was stuck to her forehead in sweat-sodden strings and mats.

Lea watched the two of them silently for a moment before rising to his feet and making his way over to their bags. Xion's pack, Roxas noticed, was there as well, thrown haphazardly to the side. After rummaging through his own pack and seeming not to find what he needed, Lea glanced at Xion and then started going through hers. He soon produced a bundle of small towels and tossed them to Roxas, who caught them one-handed.

"She would think to bring this kind of stuff," muttered Lea. "Here, help me with this."

A few minutes later, Xion was lying in Roxas' futon with the covers pulled up to her chest ("It smells weird. And it's kind of damp. Do you really sweat this much when you sleep, Roxas?") and a damp towel draped across her forehead. Lea seemed to have given up on straightening his hair and had instead gathered it into a rough ponytail that hung nearly to his waist; Roxas snorted in derision at the stray hairs sprouting out all along its length.

"I'm going to go collect our clothes," said Lea after they had made certain Xion was comfortable, "and I'll speak to the old man about letting us use this room for another day or so. It doesn't look like we'll be going anywhere anytime soon."

Roxas, sitting next to Xion's head and trying, with some small measure of success, to comb out his hair, nodded his agreement. "I'll stay-"

"You stay here with Xion," said Lea, grinning over his shoulder as he stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind him.

Once Lea's footsteps had faded into the distance, Roxas looked uncertainly at Xion and was surprised to find her staring at him with eyes bright with fever.

"… Xion?"

She didn't respond, but merely to gaze at him enigmatically.

"What's wrong?" asked Roxas. "Do you need something?"

After a moment, Xion sighed and returned her gaze to the ceiling.

"Oh… I do," she replied hoarsely. "I need… a great many things." She paused as though she was uncertain of what she wanted to say. "… a great many things," she repeated, "but… Roxas, can I tell you something?"

_I have a bad feeling about this._

"… Yeah," said Roxas after a moment. "Yeah, anything. Is it… um… something that you didn't want to say in front of Axel?"

Xion smiled weakly.

"I think Axel already knows."

"… Oh," said Roxas. He rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.

Xion was looking at him again, he knew. He directed his gaze elsewhere.

"Roxas…" she began, but she seemed to think better of whatever she was about say and instead asked, "Could you change this towel please? It's not cold anymore."

"Yeah… yeah sure," he replied, relieved, though he couldn't have said why. He fished a fresh towel out of the bucket that had been placed near the futon, wrung it out, and was reaching for the one that lay across Xion's brow when her hand closed weakly around his wrist.

He didn't say anything.

"… Roxas," said Xion, smiling thinly, "I'm not… I probably won't have enough courage to say this when I'm well, so…"

Roxas realized that he was sweating every bit as much as she was. When had the room grown so warm?

Xion brought her other hand up to cup his cheek.

"I really… really… like you, Roxas," she breathed. "I've liked you for a long time. You are… the most precious friend I could ever ask for, and I…"

Roxas was suddenly aware that he was leaning over her, though he couldn't have said how that came to be. Her face was alarmingly close to his own; he could see every bead of sweat that clung to the pinkish tinge of her cheeks above the ivory paleness of her jaw and neck. She smelled faintly of sweat, but he found that he didn't care.

"And I…"

The hand that had been holding his wrist had moved to his chest.

The room had fallen silent.

Roxas tried to think, tried to reason, tried to speak, yet his brain seemed to have stopped working. He found one of his hands slipping beneath Xion's neck as he used the other to hold himself up, found her fingers running through his hair, and after a moment's hesitation that seemed to stretch into eternity, he found her lips on his.

_She tastes… sweet._

He couldn't have said how long the kiss lasted, but when they broke apart, Roxas saw something in Xion's eyes that he had never witnessed before. It created a feeling of inexpressible warmth deep within his chest to see such a look directed at him; it filled a void within his heart that he had never known was there. Then she was kissing him again, and he was kissing her back just as desperately. He was dimly aware of footsteps approaching the door, dimly aware of the door beginning to open, then sliding closed, dimly aware of footsteps receding down the hallway, but he paid the distractions no mind. All that mattered was Xion's hand on the back of his neck, Xion's breath mingling with his own, Xion's mouth opening under his...

* * *

***AN - And then Roxas woke up and found that his futon was unaccountably damp. (I'm joking). Welp, that ship's finally left port. More to come! :D**

**All characters and (most) locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	12. Miscommunication

Miscommunication

* * *

**-Roxas, Xion, and Lea-**

* * *

"You have no idea how long I've wanted to… well, you know," said Xion, gesturing vaguely. Roxas grinned and smoothed a fall of sweat-sodden hair away from her forehead.

"Well… me too," he admitted. "But it was a little more…"

"You're blushing," teased Xion, poking him in the ribs.

"So are you," replied Roxas defensively.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Lea had just concluded his conversation with the inn's manager and was now standing just outside the room with a pile of freshly-laundered clothes spilling from both arms, horrified.

"And whose fault is that?" said Xion. "You're the one who made the first move."

"The first- I did not!" protested Roxas. "You were the one who… with your… you're the one who said that you… well…"

"So I did," sighed Xion. "… And look what it led to," she added wistfully.

"Yeah, well…" stammered Roxas. "It's not like I really… before I realized what I was doing, I-"

"Oh? So you take it back, then?"

"No… no, I don't," replied Roxas earnestly. "It was actually kind of…"

His words trailed off into silence. Lea pressed his ear against the door and heard the faint rustle of movement.

"Well…" said Xion coyly, "we could, you know… I don't think Axel's going to be back for a while, so…"

There was more rustling, followed by a yelp of distress from Roxas.

"H-hey! Where're you putting your hands?"

"That was a complete accident and I would be irreparably wounded if you held it against me," replied Xion in a deadpan tone.

There was yet more rustling, followed by silence.

Lea stifled a groan.

_What have I allowed to happen?_

It occurred to him that he should probably stop them before things went any further, yet he found that he was oddly uncomfortable with establishing such a role for himself. Part of him also felt that he had no right to impose upon their relationship in such a way, yet…

"Roxas, what're you doing? I haven't said you could have those yet."

Lea choked on his own saliva as he inhaled in shock and threw open the door, red-faced and coughing.

"The- The hell are you two doing in here?" he managed between wheezing hacks. "I under-understand that you two feel that way about each other, but-"

He fell abruptly silent as the full impact of the scene arrayed before him took hold. Both Roxas and Xion, sitting some distance away and facing each other, each holding a fan of playing cards, were staring at him in surprise and bewilderment. A small pile of chips lay between them. The cover from Roxas' futon was wrapped loosely around the both of them and they seemed to be sitting rather closer than was necessary, but aside from that…

"Oh wow, look at that!" shouted Roxas suddenly, thrusting a finger toward Lea. "Look at how red his face is turning!"

"You're… you're right," chimed Xion, trying to suppress and snicker and failing horribly. "What's this all about, Axel? You look like you were expecting to see something else."

Lea said nothing for several moments. He tried to affect an angry scowl but from the way Roxas and Xion snorted in unison, he suspected that it had come across as merely embarrassed. There were several things, however, that he did notice that he felt were worth questioning. Roxas' hair, though it had been less than presentable when Lea had left to collect their clothing, was now in absolute disarray. He seemed to be sweating as well, though the room was cool and comfortable. The most telling sign, however, was that Xion, though still clearly sick and feverish, seemed to be in a much better mood than the one in which he had left her.

Sighing, Lea folded his arms and narrowed his eyes at the two of them.

"Just what did you two get up to while I was gone?"

They looked at each other blankly, and then turned back to Lea.

"… Talked," they said in unison.

"Talked," repeated Lea flatly. "I'm sure. What else?"

They simultaneously held up their cards in answer.

"And?"

They paused, thinking. Then Roxas grabbed a handful of the cover wrapped about them and held it out toward Lea in silence.

"Roxas… I could interpret that several different ways, but…"

They sighed in unison, then turned toward each other and leaned in for a light, quick kiss that quickly turned into something altogether different. Lea looked away, slightly discomfited but not terribly surprised.

"… Mostly," said Roxas.

Lea returned his gaze to Roxas, frowning.

"Mostly? Meaning…?"

"Meaning… mostly," replied Xion, smiling faintly.

Lea decided, upon reflection, that if there were details to be had, he had little desire to know them. He contented himself with shaking his head in resignation and turned to collect their clothing from where he had dropped it in the hallway.

* * *

*** AN - I'll be writing a few short filler chapters of this nature (mostly centered on Roxas and Xion being adorable) before moving on to the next major arc. Swimming through drama to create more drama is tiring. More to come! :D**

*** All Characters and (most) locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	13. Fracture

Fracture

* * *

**-Lea and Roxas-**

* * *

Scant few days had passed before Xion was well enough to travel. Her condition had regressed slightly on the second day, which had given Lea and Roxas no small amount of worry, but fate was kind and she had awoken the next morning fully recovered. So it was that the three of them had departed Traverse Town in high spirits, optimistic about the task that had been set before them. Roxas and Xion in particular seemed to take special comfort in each other's company, and while Lea was easily able to find it in his heart to be happy for them, the extent to which they clung to each other was quickly becoming an annoyance.

So it was that when the three of them had stopped amid a grassy field at dusk to set up camp on the fourth day of their journey, Lea quietly pulled Roxas aside and had a heart-to-heart about his and Xion's behavior. Initially confused, then annoyed, and finally angry, Roxas asked him what business it was of his. That was when Lea realized for the first time that the dynamic of their relationship had changed. No longer were the three of them friends on equal footing; now, Roxas and Xion were nigh on inseparable and he, Lea, had become an outsider.

That realization made him feel indescribably lonely.

It made him slightly angry as well.

"Now listen, Roxas," he said as his friend glared up at him. "I'm not trying to get in the way of anything you and Xion feel for each other, but don't think you're being a little… don't you think you're moving too quickly? You're acting… different as well."

When Roxas' mouth tightened into a hard line, Lea knew that he had said the wrong thing.

"Moving too… and what's that supposed to mean?" snapped Roxas. "It's not like… It's not like I have a lot of experience with this kind of thing, you know. Neither does Xion… and neither do you," he added coldly.

_Isa… Keep me from punching this kid in the face._

"See, that's exactly what I mean," explained Lea in an even voice. "You're not acting like yourself. You're…" he paused and looked up at the sky as though he hoped to see the words which he sought written there. "You're… colder. You've always had a temper, but how often have you spoken to _me _like this? How often have you been this angry, seriously, legitimately angry, over something like this? … It's not like you."

Something stirred in Roxas' eyes. He held Lea's gaze defiantly for a few more moments, then exhaled loudly and looked down at his feet.

"… Sorry," he muttered. "It's just…" He trailed off into silence.

"It's just…?" prompted Lea.

Roxas stood silently for a moment, then mumbled so quietly that Lea could scarce make out the words, "… promise you won't tell Xion?"

"… I can't promise that," replied Lea after briefly considering the matter, "but I'll listen to whatever it is that's bothering you. Though you have some nerve asking me that after the way you've-"

"I get, alright?" interjected Roxas irritably. "I said I was sorry."

_Brat…_

"Anyway," he continued, "It's that, um… well, I mean, I'm not really sure that I… I mean, I do, but…. I don't think it's the same, and…"

"Roxas. Rox- Roxas, stop. Stop," said Lea wearily, holding up a hand to stop his babbling while massaging his temples with the other. "I know exactly where you're going with this, so just… relax. You're... man oh man. You're confused and worried because you suspect that what you feel for Xion and what Xion feels for you aren't necessarily the same thing. Am I right?"

Roxas blinked in surprise and then turned a brilliant shade of magenta.

"That's… how did you- that's exactly right, but-… wow Axel, how did you know that?" he blurted out, his embarrassment momentarily forgotten.

_Because I've already been through puberty._

He couldn't say that, however, so he replied with an enigmatic smile and ruffled Roxas' hair.

"Well… when you think about it, it's kind of obvious that that's how it would be. You only have a few weeks' worth of memories of Xion, so while you have a definite opinion of her, as well as feelings that I have no doubt are legitimate, you don't have the kind of intimate knowledge that she has of you. Truth be known, I think she liked you before…" He gestured vaguely. "… before everything happened. I got the impression that you had some measure of feelings for her as well, though you either didn't realize it at the time or didn't know what to do with them."

Roxas had listened to all of this with rapt attention, and was now rubbing the back of his neck in thought.

"So…" he began, "you think that I'm…"

"I think that you're attracted to Xion," said Lea bluntly. "And I'm positive that she's attracted to you as well, but I think her attachment to you goes much deeper than that. And that's perfectly fine. She knows that she can't expect that level of reciprocation right now, so she's content with simply having you at her side."

He waved his hand self-consciously.

"But it's not my place to be telling you these things. I've only said as much as I have because it was clearly eating at you… and because you're too afraid to ask Xion yourself," he added with a smirk.

Roxas smiled uncertainly.

"… Look," he muttered after a moment, "I'm sorry that I've been so… does it feel like we're leaving you out? Because… I've kinda felt that way too. And it bothers me. Xion's said that we need to include you-"

"I have no interest in being included in whatever it is you and Xion do together," said Lea in a deadpan tone that made Roxas grin. "But… thank you. And it really wasn't…well, I probably shouldn't have said anything to you about the way you two have been acting, but…"

"But it bothered you," said Roxas quietly.

"… Yeah," admitted Lea. "I've felt kind of… "

Roxas stared at him for a moment, then sighed and made a show of shrugging helplessly as he turned to head back toward their tents.

"Well, I'll talk to Xion and see what all we can include you in. The best stuff is off-limits, but…"

Lea shook his head, grinning.

"I'm sure."

Roxas paused and looked back at Lea over his shoulder.

"… Thanks," they said in unison.

* * *

*** AN - We've been due a bromance chapter for a while now. More to come!**

*** All characters and (most) locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	14. Selfish

Selfish

* * *

**-Roxas and Xion-**

* * *

"You sure took your time," teased Xion when she saw Roxas making his way toward her in the moonlight. "What did Axel want?"

Roxas shrugged as he picked his way around the rocks and gopher holes that dotted the grassy slope upon which Xion lay. It was romantic enough, he supposed, but the conversation he had had with Lea weighed heavily upon his conscience. Xion seemed to sense his preoccupation when he lowered himself to the grass beside her. She watched him silently for a time before reluctantly returning her gaze to the stars. Roxas, lost in thought, said nothing until he felt the warmth of her hand enclose his own. He pulled his gaze away from the stars and looked over at her, blades of grass tickling his cheek.

_She looks so… fragile._

Bathed in the moonlight, Xion's preternaturally pale skin took on a ghostly hue; it gave her a delicate, otherworldly appearance that Roxas found strangely attractive.

"… Axel's… lonely, isn't he?" asked Xion quietly. She turned her head to look at Roxas, unsmiling.

"Yeah… yeah, he is," answered Roxas reluctantly, "but he's… I told him we'd try to be less…" he gestured vaguely with his free hand. "I dunno. Less… clingy? It sounds bad to say it that way, but…"

"I see," said Xion, glancing down at their hands. "Good job with that. But, well… he might have already told you this, but I thought of you as… more than just a friend even before you lost your memories. I didn't say anything, though. I didn't act on my feelings… for several reasons. I was scared of doing or saying something that might drive you away, primarily, but… I also wasn't sure what kind of effect that would have on our relationship as a group. Axel and I became friends solely because of you, and I didn't want my acting selfishly upon my feelings toward you to ruin that."

Roxas stretched uncomfortably. "Yeah, he might've mentioned it. We talked about a few other things as well, but… I think he was more bothered by how I've been acting toward him than by anything we've said or done together."

Xion smiled faintly. "Ah, so that's… I was wondering when he was going to bring it up."

Roxas groaned. "If you knew I was acting like that, why didn't you say anything? You have no idea how guilty I've felt since he called me out on it."

"Because I understand," replied Xion gently, "and because I'm selfish. I'm fully aware that, as far your memories are concerned, I've known you for far longer than you've known me. I can't expect you to even begin to understand how important… how precious you are to me, and I can't, I don't, expect you to be able to fully reciprocate my feelings toward you. To be perfectly honest, when I confessed to you back at the inn, I had absolutely no intention of… letting it go further than that, but you just… I don't know. It was like something I had always dreamed of but never expected to actually possess was suddenly lying right in my path."

She smiled thinly.

"So… I acted on impulse. I was more surprised than you can imagine when you actually returned the kiss; I expected you to sprint out of the room yelling for Axel."

Roxas laughed and gave her hand a squeeze. "Well… I was surprised, but… it wasn't… you know… I liked it," he finished awkwardly.

"Oh? Is that so?" teased Xion, grinning.

"Yeah, that's so," replied Roxas flatly, "so…"

"So do you understand that, for now, this situation doesn't bother me that much?" asked Xion. "Granted, I'd love to listen to you explain what it exactly it is about me that you like so much, and- I'm joking, Roxas," she added when he fidgeted uncomfortably, "but… I'm fine with this… for now."

She sighed quietly and shuffled over to lay her head in the crook of his shoulder. "I'm fine with being selfish for a little while longer."

* * *

***AN - Apologies for the length. Didn't have much time to write this one today. This is the last filler chapter before the next arc, which will be posted either tomorrow or Tuesday. More to come!**

***All characters and (most) locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	15. Unchained - Prologue

Unchained – Prologue

**-The Dreamer-**

* * *

_Tired._

_Tired of Darkness._

_Tired of Loneliness. _

_Your pain._

_Your call._

_My poor other half. _

_Weak._

_Tattered._

_Trapped._

_Let me break the chains that bind you._

_Let me break them all._

* * *

**-Lea-**

* * *

"Roxas? Roxas! Xion! What's happening?!"

Lea's chakrams vanished in a swirl of flame. He turned his back on the flood of heartless pouring from the darkened sky in a torrent and sprinted toward his two friends. They had been retreating toward the Secret Place in a panic, no more than a step ahead of the horde of heartless that assailed them, when Roxas and Xion had staggered and fallen to the ground, seemingly unconscious, Keyblades spilling from their hands.

"Hey! Hey, you two! Get-… man oh man."

Lea glanced over his shoulder as he scooped both Roxas and Xion into his arms in a tangled heap. Draping one of them over each shoulder, he paused just long enough to witness their Keyblades vanish in twin flashes of light before turning and ripping open a corridor of darkness. He hastily connected it to the Mysterious Tower. With one final look at the seemingly endless sea of heartless that now blanketed the island, Lea backed into the gateway.

* * *

*** Version notes: Revision 1.1**

*** AN - This is the central arc of this story, and as such it's going to be fairly extensive in terms of length. I can't give an estimate as to how long it's going to take me to write each chapter, so I just wanted to create a (very) short prologue/teaser of sorts to lead into it. More to come!**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	16. Unchained - Part I

Unchained – Part I

**-Roxas and Lea-**

* * *

_It was my choice… to go away now. Better that than to do nothing… and let Xemnas have his way. I'm like you, Roxas. I don't remember much from the beginning either. Well… I'm just glad the two of you are in the organization with me. Even if I'm not ready… I have to make this choice. I need you… to do me a favor. Remember… that's the truth. Your… friend? Roxas, do you think I could be a friend? You've poured so many memories into me… given me so much… Remember… That's the truth. Truth. That's… could I be a friend? This puppet… I worry about you all the time, Roxas. Even if I'm not ready do you think I could be you've poured so many I don't remember much from let Xemnas have-_

_No! Xion! Who will I have ice cream with?!_

_Remember… That's the truth…_

"Xion!"

Roxas awoke in a panic. He could taste a salty mixture of tears and sweat upon his lips as he flailed about in the darkness, frantic and confused. One of his feet came into contact with something solid and sent it crashing to the floor. The noise attracted the attention of someone sitting just around the corner outside of his room; the door swung open with such force that it rebounded off the wall. Light stabbed at his eyes.

"Did I hear- He's awake! You- yes you, go wake the king and tell him that Roxas has woken up! Hurry!"

Squinting his eyes against the sudden intrusion of light into a room that had been utterly dark only moments before, Roxas was able to discern a tall, slender silhouette standing in the doorway with its hands pressed to either side of the frame.

"Who-" was all that Roxas had time to say before the figure had closed the distance between them and scooped him up into a bone-shattering hug that momentarily cut off his air supply with its intensity. He kicked feebly at the shins of the person holding him, but Lea only laughed and squeezed him tighter.

"Roxas! You have no idea how happy I am that you're-"

"Y-yeah," wheezed Roxas as he tried ineffectually to wriggle out of Lea's grasp. "I gathered. Let- let me go, Axel. I seriously can't-" He stumbled backward and fell to the ground, gasping for air, when Lea released him. His mind was a maelstrom of unasked questions. "What… I don't- I don't know what I want to ask fir...- Xion!" Roxas scrambled awkwardly to his feet and had to grasp a bedpost to keep from falling. "Xion, what's- Axel, did you-"

"Rox- hold on. Calm down," advised Axel, reaching out to steady him. "I don't know what's got you so bent out of shape, but we can-"

"Xion!" shouted Roxas desperately. "Why- you know who I'm talking about, right? Xion? She… she… I don't know why, but I suddenly remembered…I have to tell…..… Why are you looking at me like that?"

For Lea was frowning at Roxas with no small amount of concern. There was something else there as well, but it was harder to define. Roxas thought that it reminded him of pity.

His sense of panic threatened to spiral out of control. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"Roxas… ah, well…" Lea looked away uncomfortably.

_No… no, no…_

"I-Is it… is she injured?" said Roxas hoarsely. "Is that it? Did something happen while I was unconscious and-"

"Roxas…" said Lea, gently interrupting him. "I don't… I thought you knew."

"Knew? Knew what? Axel, don't… please… this isn't…"

Lea stared at him for a long moment.

"Xion is gone."

_Never forget… that's the truth._

Roxas blinked dumbly.

"… Gone?" he finally managed. "You mean, like she's… she's gone off somewhere on a mission, or she's…"

"Roxas…" Lea rubbed the side of his neck in discomfort. "Xion… Xion has been gone… for months. I'm… kind of surprised that you even remember her, actually…"

Roxas stared.

"A-Axel…" he began weakly, "this isn't something to joke about, alright? I'm serious, is Xion ok? If she's injured or something, then we'll… we'll deal with it, but at least let me see her. Okay? Just… please…"

Lea looked as the he had never felt sorrier for anyone.

"I'm sorry partner… There's nothing I can do."

Roxas couldn't remember falling, yet he found that he was suddenly gazing up a magnificent domed ceiling bordered with stars. He couldn't seem to make his brain work. There were, as he saw it, only two possibilities. First, something had happened to Xion and Lea was trying, in his perverse, insensitive, idiotic... was trying to spare him that pain. The second option, which Roxas highly doubted, was that Lea was telling him the truth: Xion had vanished the day she sacrificed herself for his sake, and the memories he had made with her over the past few weeks were all a fabrication.

He wasn't sure which possibility he preferred, but he was spared that choice by the timely arrival of the King.

King Mickey frowned at him, not unkindly, and offered a hand to help him to his feet.

Roxas ignored it.

"Is Lea telling the truth about Xion?" he asked in a dead voice.

_Never forget… That's the truth._

Mickey blinked in puzzlement and looked over his shoulder at Lea, who shrugged.

"… Xion?" mused Mickey, retracting his hand when he saw that Roxas had no intention of accepting it. "You mean that puppet who-"

"She's not a puppet!" shouted Roxas angrily. "She's…"

_... my friend._

_"Roxas? Do you... do you think I could be a friend?"_

Roxas closed his mouth, unable to continue.

"… I see we have some things to talk about," said Mickey when Roxas had trailed off into silence. "But first… Xion was a p-… a brave girl who, knowing that her predetermined fate would bring harm to her friends – namely Lea and yourself – surrendered her life to protect you. Your memories were erased upon her demise… or at least, they should have been." The King tilted his head to side quizzically. "So what seems to be the issue? Do you disagree with that version of ev-"

"Of course I disagree!" protested Roxas. "I have lots… lots and lots of memories of her from just these past few weeks! Why are you two trying to tell me that she doesn't… that those… Axel!" he exclaimed suddenly. Lea flinched. "We stayed in Traverse Town for several days, right?" Lea nodded his head that it was so. "Why did we stay for so long? We were in a hurry to find Sora, right? Why didn't we buy what supplies we needed and leave right away?"

Lea frowned in thought.

"Well… I don't really remember, to be honest. My memory's kind of fuzzy around-oh!" He grinned. "We stayed because your puny rump got sick and I had to look after you until you were well enough to travel. That's all it was."

Roxas sighed in exasperation.

"I… no, it was Xion who was sick, remember? She came into our room during the night and I found her there the next morning. And… and we…" He felt his face reddening.

"We…?" prompted Lea and the King in unison.

"We… well… it doesn't really matter, but… there's absolutely no way I imagined all of that. You're telling me that I'm just making up-"

"Roxas, you were sick," interrupted Lea, frowning. "You had a ridiculously high fever. I don't doubt that you had some crazy dreams during all that. This deal with Xion was probably just one of them."

Roxas was at a loss. Could he be wrong? Could his reunion with Xion, their relationship, have been nothing more than a fantasy brought on by a fever? The thought made him feel sick to his stomach. He found himself remembering the way she had smiled up at him after they had shared their first kiss back at the inn; he saw her reclining upon a grassy slope the night after a rain, pale and beautiful in the moonlight. He saw her grinning as she danced away from him, ice cream in hand; he saw her smiling up at him after she had tackled him from behind.

He felt an uncomfortable twinge within his heart.

_"Roxas, please..."_

Roxas jerked out of his reverie, startled. He cast his gaze around the room and saw only Lea and the King, both of whom appeared to be at a loss for the cause of his bewilderment.

_"Help me... it's so... lonely. Cold. Dark."_

"X-Xion?!" shouted Roxas, scrambling unsteadily to his feet. "where- I can't-"

_"She doesn't... doesn't... please..."_

Lea and the King were both looking at him with a mixture of concern and panic. Roxas gestured wildly.

"Do you two not hear her? Do you not hear Xion? She- she's in trouble, or..."

His vision began to darken.

"She's... in pain and..."

His hearing began to fade.

"... have to help... please..."

The room suddenly tilted at some crazy angle, and then Roxas was left alone in the darkness with Xion's pleas ringing in his ears.

* * *

*** Version notes: Revision 1.2**

*** AN - More to come!**_  
_

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	17. Unchained - Part II

Unchained – Part II

* * *

**-Xion-**

* * *

She floated numbly in the darkness. Time had no meaning in this place, yet she felt as though she had been drifting aimlessly for an eternity. She had cared, in the beginning, and she had fought her intangible jailer with all of her strength; however, she had soon been forced to come to terms with her imprisonment, and now she felt as empty as the void that cradled her.

_I'm sorry… Oh Roxas, I'm so sorry…_

As there was no longer a need to conceal the full magnitude of the actions she had undertaken in her desperation, she allowed herself to reflect – truly, sincerely reflect – on the bargains she had struck, the lies she had told, the favors she had begged, and, ultimately, what it had cost her.

_*Dreaming again, are we?*_

She was weary of the circular discussions that she had often held with the voice that seemed to call the void its home. She had first become aware of its presence when she had still resided within Sora's heart; she couldn't begin to imagine where such a thing had come from or how it had managed to penetrate such a sacrosanct place, yet she suspected that it had been drawn by her cries when she had screamed into the darkness in the depths of her loneliness.

_*Oh, very good. __Very good indeed, yes. __But this revelation is not new__. __We have discussed it before; your loneliness, pain, and sorrow give me sustenance; thoughts and emotions steeped in darkness give me form__. __But you already know that. __You knew, yet you wanted. You desired. __Covetous. Now look at the situation you've gotten yourself into. Look at all of the work you've laid before me.*__  
_

Xion had the uncomfortable sensation of the darkness closing in around her. She struggled feebly, but found that she was unable to move. Terror gripped her.

_*You have no one to blame for this but yourself, you know. If it's any consolation, know that you're making me put forth more effort than I would wish. That much, at least, you got right.*_

A horrible, billowing silence followed this proclamation. Xion tried with all of her might to move her limbs, but she found that she was unable to do so much as blink. Her level of panic intensified with the realization that all control of her body had been stripped-

_"I like you, Xion, and that's all that matters."_

She felt bile rising up into her throat.

… _No… no, please… don't… that's not…._

Xion twisted in agony as the memory was drawn out of her heart and then viciously ripped into tatters that were swallowed up by the darkness.

_"Your problem is that you're stuck on this idea that we're no longer friends just because I can't remember everything we did together. That's silly."_

Xion screamed.

Xion begged.

Xion felt a surge of pain lance through her heart, and then her awareness faded into a numb haze.

She floated lifelessly in the darkness. Time had no meaning in this place, yet she felt as though she had been drifting aimlessly for an eternity. She had cared, in the beginning, and she had fought her intangible jailer with all of her strength; however, she had soon been forced to come to terms with her imprisonment, and now she felt as empty as the void that cradled her.

She felt as though she had forgotten something important.

_I'm sorry… Oh Roxas, I'm so sorry…_

As there was no longer a need to conceal the full magnitude of the actions she had undertaken in her desperation, she allowed herself to reflect – truly, sincerely reflect – on the bargains she had struck, the lies she had told, the favors she had begged, and, ultimately, what it had cost her.

_*Quite the dreamer, aren't we?*_

She was weary of the circular discussions that she had often held with the voice that seemed to call the void its home. She had first become aware of its presence when she had still resided within Sora's heart; she couldn't begin to imagine where such a thing had come from or how it had managed to penetrate such a sacrosanct place, yet she suspected that it had been drawn by her cries when she had screamed into the darkness in the depths of her loneliness.

_*Oh, you're very amusing. __Quite the detective.*_

She had the uncomfortable sensation of the darkness pressing in around her. She struggled feebly, but found that she was unable to move. Terror gripped her.

_*Selfishness begets naught but darkness. You knew this, yet you persisted in your folly. Look at what it's come to.*_

A heavy, sweltering silence followed. Xion tried with all of her might to move her limbs, but she found that she was unable to do so much as blink. Her level of panic intensified with the realization that all control of her body had been stripped away. She felt utterly helpless.

_"Xion… if you completely understand that you can't expect me to suddenly remember everything we did together, then I'm fine with being friends. In fact, I would like to be your friend. You seem like a good person."_

She felt bile rising up into her throat.

… _No… no… This wasn't… this wasn't part of the…_

Xion twisted in agony as the memory was drawn out of her heart and then viciously ripped into tatters that were swallowed up by the darkness.

_"I really… really… like you, Roxas. You are the absolute most precious friend I could ever have and I… and I…"_

Xion screamed.

Xion begged.

Xion wept.

_*Foolish child.*_

Xion felt a surge of pain rip through her heart, and then her awareness faded into a numb haze.

She floated lethargically in the darkness. Time had no meaning in this place, yet she felt as though she had been drifting aimlessly for an eternity. She had cared, in the beginning, and she had fought her intangible jailer with all of her strength; however, she had soon been forced to come to terms with her imprisonment, and now she felt as empty as the void that cradled her.

She felt as though she had forgotten something important.

_I'm sorry… Oh Roxas, I'm so sorry…_

As there was no longer a need to conceal the full magnitude of the actions she had undertaken in her desperation, she allowed herself to reflect – truly, sincerely reflect – on the bargains she had struck, the lies she had told, the favors she had begged, and, ultimately, what it had cost her.

She cried in the darkness.

* * *

*** Version notes: Revision 1.1**

*** AN - I have to be honest; it was really, really hard for me to write this. Things will only get darker from here.**

*** AN2 - !Important! - All of the voice's lines will be marked with asterisks (*) moving forward.**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	18. Unchained - Part III

Unchained – Part III

**-Lea -**

* * *

The steady ticking of some unseen clock was the only noise to be heard in the otherwise silent tower as Lea idly brushed a fall of sweat-soaked hair away from Roxas' ashen face. He was straddling a chair that he had dragged to Roxas' bedside and was watching his unconscious friend with a mixture of concern and trepidation. The King had gone to wake Yen Sid when Roxas had collapsed, leaving the two of them alone in the darkened bedchamber that smelled faintly of mold and Roxas' sweat.

He was absently fussing with the bedclothes, tugging and smoothing nonexistent wrinkles as if doing so would somehow allow Roxas to sleep more comfortably, when the King returned with Yen Sid in tow.

"… and so I do not believe that to be the case," said the venerable old sorcerer as the two of them came to a halt in the doorway, apparently concluding a conversation that had been held en route to Roxas' bedchamber. The King frowned, but offered no reply.

"For now… let us examine the boy. The other seems to be stable for the moment; I have had Flora and Fauna attending her and they have reported no change… though I do agree that her condition shall need to be addressed sooner rather than later." He waved a hand dismissively. "But we were speaking of the boy."

Roxas twisted in his sleep and muttered something unintelligible. Lea, Yen Sid, and the King watched him apprehensively. He twisted again, groaned, and then fell silent. There was suddenly a horrific crash from the floor above that shook untold centuries of dust from the ceiling. All three men looked upward in alarm. There was a second crash, louder, followed by the telltale shriek of wood being twisted and ground into splinters. Lea leapt to his feet and sprinted for the door, but the King grabbed a handful of his robes and slung him bodily to the floor.

"Get down!" was all that he had time to say before a third crash toppled bookshelves and chairs and flung pictures from the walls. The entire tower swayed with the impact.

"She- she's awake!" shouted the King, scrambling to his feet. "You were right, I didn't think she'd-"

There was a horrific scream from the floor above. It was bestial and inhuman, full of pain and rage, and near the end Lea thought that he could hear a second voice screaming alongside it. He felt something in the pit of his stomach twist uncomfortably.

"Was… was that… Xion?"

Yen Sid and the King looked at him uncertainly.

"Yes," admitted the King, "but not the Xion you know."

"That creature is something altogether different," added Yen Sid. "Something that should not exist within the realms of light, yet-"

Another wail ripped through the tower, shattering lights and windows and plunging the interior into a semi-darkness that was held at bay only by the moonlight. Yen Sid sighed dejectedly and climbed unsteadily to his feet.

"The King and I will try to… We will do what we can to handle this situation. Take Roxas and flee. If you don't hear from us-"

"Wait, stop. Hold on," interrupted Lea. "You'll try to what? Xion isn't-"

"Lea… that's no longer Xion," said the King sadly. "That horror is a manifestation of all of Xion's pain and loneliness. I don't doubt that she's still in there somewhere, but… if there's a way to reach her, we don't know what it could be."

Lea stared blankly, uncomprehending.

"But… but you said, when I brought them here, that-"

"That we would try to help them," said Yen Sid gently. "But this situation is beyond our control. I was able to learn precious little from my initial examination, but it seems that this darkness has been eating away at her heart for quite some time. I am fairly confident that I know what has happened, yet..."

"We're not sure if it's a separate entity," added the King, "but I don't believe that it is. Yen Sid seems to think otherwise, but…"

Yen Sid waved his hand impatiently.

"We can discuss this later. For now, Lea, you must take Roxas and-"

"I'm not going anywhere."

All three men turned around and found Roxas sitting upright, awake, his face concealed in shadow.

There was a deep _thrum _from the floor above followed by the sound of debris tumbling down the stairwell.

By contrast, the bedchamber was utterly silent.

"R… Roxas," began Lea when he could bear the silence no longer, "How long have you-"

"Shut up," said Roxas quietly.

There was a faint rustle of bedclothes as Roxas slid out of the bed and rose to his feet in the darkness. The room was briefly thrown into sharp relief by a stunning flash of light as a Keyblade appeared in his outstretched hand. Lea was just able to discern the silhouette of a Thalassa shell dangling from the grip.

* * *

***AN - "'And who are you', the proud lord said, 'that I must bow so low?...'"**

***All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	19. Unchained - Behold the Fury

Unchained: Behold the Fury

**-Roxas-**

* * *

He understood. He was perfectly aware that Axel and the King had felt fully justified in lying to him about Xion's condition. Perhaps, given the circumstances, such a lie _was _justified. Yet that knowledge did little to ease his anger. Roxas was furious. He was also scared. Terrified. He had been awake for the bulk of Lea's conversation with Yen Sid and the King, so he had a fair idea of what awaited him on the floor above… yet he was unable to say what he would do, how he would react, if Xion attacked him. He would have to defend himself, he supposed, but he would never… ever again…

"Roxas, please," implored Yen Sid as Roxas glared at Lea, "Listen to what we're trying to tell you. Xion, if that creature can still be considered Xion, will not recognize you. I am unable to say how she will react, but it is not outside the realms of possibility that she will attack you."

Roxas shifted his glare to Yen Sid.

"And?"

Yen Sid blinked, at a loss.

"If... You will have to defend yourself; I doubt that she will let you escape if she truly intends to harm you. Do you think-"

"I'll do whatever I have to do to get Xion back," said Roxas flatly. "Now... move. And don't follow me."

Lea, Yen Sid, and the King were all shouting at him, but Roxas ignored their cries and shouldered past them into the darkened staircase that lead to the tower's uppermost floor. Having no source of light, he had to carefully feel his way around, and sometimes over, the piles of debris that crowded close to the walls and littered the floor. It was a slow, careful climb that was made ever more difficult by the occasional crashes and screeches that grew louder as he drew closer to the exit. When he had reached the top and crawled through the ragged hole where a massive double-arched door had stood only minutes before, he found himself in a moonlit chamber that looked as though it had been caught in a hurricane.

A cloud of plaster hung heavy in the air, giving the overturned furniture and broken stonework a hazy, undefined look. The floor was pockmarked with small craters as though something had been slammed into it over and over. Deep gashes had been hewn into the walls; some of the gashes ended in streaks of something that looked horribly like blood. The windows, as their brethren downstairs, were gone, letting in streamers of moonlight that only served to make it that much more difficult to see through the haze of dust and debris.

Yet Xion was nowhere to be seen.

He was dumbfounded; the one chamber comprised the entire floor of the tower. There were no closets, no cupboards, and no pieces of furniture that one could hide behind; aside from the debris, the room seemed to be empty. Roxas turned and took a step toward the stairwell, preparing to work his way back down to Lea, Yen Sid, and the King, when he felt a rush of warm breath on the back of his neck. He whirled in a panic and brought the Keyblade up to defend himself, yet there was nothing there. Something in the stairwell shifted noisily and he whirled back to face the darkened maw, panting as the beginnings of fear started to take hold. The chamber grew eerily silent.

"I see you."

Roxas let out a choked scream and swung his Keyblade toward the voice in a panic but felt only air.

"She sees you."

Roxas stumbled backward and almost lost his footing on a piece of debris. The darkness seemed to shake with laughter.

Roxas wiped the sweat out of his eyes with a shaking hand and took a tentative step toward the stairwell, Keyblade raised and ready to strike should anything attempt to stop him. Xion, he had decided, was definitely not here; that _something _had claimed the darkened, ruined chamber for its own he had no doubt, but he had no desire to face it on his own, and certainly not in such a difficult environment.

He had only made a few steps' worth of progress, however, when something crashed into him from behind. Arms clamped around his waist.

Roxas had never been as terrified as he was in that moment.

"Xi… Xi… Xion?" he whispered into the darkness. "I-Is… Is that…?"

Warm breath tickled his ear.

"What would you do... if I said no?"

Roxas choked on his own saliva in panic and tried to win free from the arms clamped about his waist, but their grip only tightened.

"What's wrong?" mocked Xion. "She used to do this all the time. Did you not like it?"

The arms tightened further. It was becoming difficult for Roxas to breathe.

"Did it make you uncomfortable?" The grip tightened yet again, and Roxas felt a searing stab of pain lance through his chest. He tried to cry out, but found that he didn't possess the breath to do so. "Did it frighten you?" Xion tightened her grip one last time. Roxas was dimly aware of a popping sound followed by an indescribable torrent of pain ripping through his chest. He was unable to draw a breath. Xion released him and he crumpled to the floor, legs drawn up to his chest, trying in vain to breathe. His Keyblade vanished in a flash of light.

_I'm going to die._

"You're not going to die," said Xion disdainfully as though she had read his thoughts. "I just tickled your ribs a bit… though I do find it hard to believe that she was attracted to someone this weak." She loomed over him, a frail silhouette in the moonlight, watching him struggle to draw a breath. When he finally did, she smirked and kicked him in the ribs with all of her might. There was another pop that echoed in the cavernous room. Roxas screamed.

"Roxas! What's- hang on partner," called a voice from the stairwell. "We're almost there! Hang in there!"

Xion frowned at the darkened entrance in distaste, and then returned her gaze to Roxas, writhing on the ground in pain.

"Well, this has certainly been fun," she teased, stretching languidly like some sleek black cat, "but it seems that there are others who require my attention. Never fear, however; our dance shall resume once they have been dealt with."

"Xi… Xion… or who… whoever you a-are," managed Roxas in a hoarse whisper, "Don't… don't do this. This isn't… isn't…"

Xion smiled sadly and bent over him so that their faces were nearly touching. Roxas was alarmed to see tears in her eyes. She cupped his cheek.

"But Roxas… Xion is dead. You killed her, remember?"

Smirking at the spasm of pain that passed over his face, Xion folded her arms and turned her attention to the stairwell.

Roxas' eyes burned. He made no attempt to halt the tears once they had started, though crying only made his chest hurt that much more. His last thoughts before he lost consciousness were of Xion.

* * *

*** Version Notes: Revision 1.2**

*** AN - More to come!**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix (lol) unless otherwise noted.**


	20. Unchained - Dissonance

Unchained: Dissonance

**-Xion-**

***AN – This section runs parallel to the previous chapter, but passes it toward the end.**

* * *

_Where am I?_

A magnificent domed ceiling speckled with stars slowly swam into focus as Xion opened her eyes. Groggy from sleep and aching as though she had been beaten mercilessly, she was unable to immediately determine where she was. The faintly familiar smell of dust and years would not have been out of place in some ancient library, yet a sluggish glance to each side revealed towering arched windows in place of bookshelves. With a tremendous effort that made her arms and shoulders scream with pain, Xion pushed herself into a sitting position and felt heavy bedcovers fall away from her chest. She glanced down and was surprised to find that she was wearing her old Organization robes. Bewildered, she pulled her gaze away and began to inspect her surroundings.

She seemed to be in a bedchamber of sorts, though the overlarge bed in which she lay felt curiously vulnerable; it was an island in a sea of checkered marble tiles that crept toward the walls in a dizzying spiral. There was furniture scattered around the perimeter of the room, to be sure, yet it did little to dampen the impression of overwhelming vastness; Xion felt as tiny and insignificant as an insect. She cautiously swung her legs over the side of the bed, an effort that left her panting in pain, and began to lower herself to the floor when the tiles just below her dangling feet began to hum in warning. Startled, Xion twisted and pulled her legs back onto the bed, wincing.

_*Trapped.*_

Xion sighed in relief.

_You're still here. Are you alright? _She thought in reply. The voice, after all, was her dearest friend. When Roxas had betrayed and killed her some months past, the voice had sought her out within the darkness of Sora's heart; it had befriended her, and ultimately, it had set her free. So it was that she found herself in this unknown chamber, fresh from her imprisonment.

_Free at last._

_Unchained._

_*Oh, I'm fine,* _replied the voice, *… _as is Roxas.*_

Xion looked up sharply.

_Roxas? Roxas is locked within Sora's heart. _

_*He should be, yes,* _admitted the voice, *_yet I can feel his presence. Weak. __He is just below us.*_

Xion fidgeted uncomfortably.

_*Is something wrong?*_

_No… no, but… I don't really want to see him, so can we just-_

_*You don't want to see your false friend? __You don't want to confront your murderer? __You don't want to make him suffer for the-*_

"No!" shouted Xion aloud. The voice fell silent.

"I don't… I don't know… I don't want revenge. Roxas is… Roxas was my friend, and-"

*I_ am your friend.*_

Xion offered no reply. Her mind felt cluttered. She was having difficulty sorting through her memories; some seemed to be fragmented while others had vanished altogether. She supposed that such disarray was merely a side effect of her transition from Sora's heart to the realms of light, but it was still an extremely uncomfortable sensation. Had Roxas truly betrayed her? She thought that she could see Roxas sneering at her as he drove his Keyblade into her heart, but his face warped into her own as the memory faded. She made a noncommittal noise in her throat.

*… _Do you not trust me? __After all I have done for your sake? __After I found you in the darkness? __After I offered you companionship? __After I listened to your troubles? __After I set you free?*_

Xion rubbed the side of her neck in embarrassment.

"Well… I guess, but… let's say that I do want to see Roxas. Not to… to do anything to him, just to speak with him, to ask him why he… well, you know." She gestured vaguely at the floor. "We can't even get down there to him, so-"

_*Leave that to me.*_

Xion blinked.

"What?"

_*Leave that to me.*_

Xion bit her lip uncertainly.

"What are… what are you going to do?"

Xion had the uncomfortable sensation of pressure gathering around her body.

_*Utilize your power. Your body. I have no physical form, so I must rely upon your strength.*_

"You're going to… possess me?" asked Xion warily.

_*It sounds worse than it is i__f you call it that... b__ut yes. Only for a brief time. __With your strength and my knowledge,t__his barrier is nothing. __Do I have your permission?*_

Xion said nothing.

*… _Xion?*_

"Only… only for as long it takes to… to escape this place, right?"

_*Escape? I thought you wanted to confront Roxas... b__ut very well. You may do whatever you wish __once the barrier has been broken.*_

Xion took a deep, steadying breath.

The room had fallen silent.

"Then… I agree."

_*Fool.*_

"Wha-"

Xion scrambled backward but found that she had nowhere to go. There was a deep _thrum_ as darkness exploded into existence within her heart, billowing outward in waves that manifested as snaking tendrils coiling about her limbs. Xion tried to scream in protest but found that she no longer had control of her body. The sensation felt vaguely familiar.

_*Gullible. __I can't believe you actually gave me permission. __I thought you were more intelligent than that.*_

Xion's arms swam out of view as the voice stretched.

_*You may call me… Noi. __Appropriate, don't you think? __I have a great many things to tell you in the coming days, bu__t for now…*_

There was a horrific crash as an unseen fist of air slammed into the floor, shattering several square meters of tile and sending up a cloud of debris. A hum of warning echoed throughout the chamber, louder and more insistent than before. More crashes followed, punching a series of small craters into the floor. Eventually, the humming faltered and fell silent. Almost immediately, a shimmering dome sprang up around the bed, close and tight. Both Noi and Xion cried out from the searing pain that suddenly ripped through her body, but the barrier cracked and shattered beneath a single tremendous blow from Xion's fist. Xion thought that her hand might have broken. Noi wrung it out, wincing.

_*See? We can work together if we try. __Things will be easier that way.*_

Xion offered no reply.

_*Well, have it your way. __I don't particularly dislike you, you know.*_

… _Then why are you doing this?_

"Why am I doing this?" asked Noi aloud as though she was dumbfounded by the question.

"Why am I doing what? Controlling your body? Because you foolishly gave me permission. And because you're too weak to do what needs to be done on your own. As to what that is… well, I'm not really sure myself. I think you would know better than I."

She swung her legs over the edge of the bed and slid smoothly to the floor.

"But, well… it seems that that boy is causing you an unhealthy amount of pain at the moment, so... let's deal with that first."

_Deal-? What are you going to- and what do you mean I would know better than you? You're not a part of me, so don't act like-_

Noi snorted and then roared with laughter.

"Not… not a part of… oh man. You foolish little idiot, I _am_ you. I'm the result of all of the pain that you've held inside your heart for months on end. I'm the failsafe that awoke when that pain threatened to destroy your heart. I am your sorrow, your tears, your loneliness, you deepest, darkest fears… I am the part of you that you hate and that you're ashamed of. I am the part of you that you have never shown to anyone, because I sicken you."

Xion was silent. She felt something twist uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach. As outrageous as it sounded, she suspected that Noi was telling the truth; she had… but…

_For months on end? I was only within Sora's heart for-_

"Oh, that," said Noi dismissively. "That's, well… I might have tinkered with your memories a bit. It suited my ends… which means that it suited your ends. There might be a few inconsistencies here and there, but try not to pay them any mind."

Xion felt as though she was going to be sick.

_What have you done to me?_

Noi chuckled.

"Why, only what you wanted."

She glanced distractedly at the sconces that were set into the walls at even intervals, bathing the room in a dazzlingly bright glow.

"Ah, but… we'll continue this conversation later. Let's make some noise to get your friends up here, shall we?"

Noi raised Xion's hand and snapped her fingers. There was a violent concussion to the air that sent a wall of dust racing outward in a ring. The bed split in twain as it slammed into the wall. The windows exploded outward and the sconces shattered in a hail of glassy shards, plunging the room into a hazy, moonlit darkness. Noi stumbled, recovered gracefully, and pointed both fingers at the door to the stairway. It exploded inward, taking a sizable portion of the wall with it.

Xion was horrified.

Noi, sensing her distress, giggled.

"Well, I suppose that was a bit much… but really, do you have any idea how much power you have stored in this frail little body?"

She made a lazy scratching motion with her hand at a blank stretch of wall some ten meters away. Rubble exploded outward as great gashes were hewn into the stonework. She clapped her hands in delight.

_You're insane._

"Am I?" teased Noi. "You're the one who hears voices in her head. But look, here comes… is that…?" She craned her neck to peer down the darkened stairwell. "Ah, that's Roxas. Let's surprise him."

_Wait, don't-_

Noi made a _shh_ing sound and backed into a pool of shadows adjacent to the ruined doorway.

Roxas stumbled into the chamber moments later, visibly apprehensive.

_*He looks rather frightened, doesn't he?*_

_Noi, please… let's just leave, I don't want to-_

_*Liar.*_

Then they were moving. Noi silently flitted around Roxas, first whispering taunts in one ear and then the other. She flicked her finger at the stairwell when she tired of that, causing some rubble within to shift noisily. Roxas whirled toward the sound in a panic.

Xion could sense Noi's delight. It sickened her.

_Just as she said…_

_*What's that?* _Replied Noi distractedly. *_Oh well. I think it's- o__h! You know what would be perfect right about now?*_

_What are you doing?! Don't do that! That's not-_

Xion groaned as Noi tackled Roxas from behind and slung her arms around his waist.

_Seriously Noi, that's not funny. Let him go._

_*Then why am I laughing?*_

"'Xi…Xi… Xion, i-is that…?" whispered Roxas in a trembling voice.

_Let him go. _

"What would you do…" whispered Noi seductively, "if I said no?"

Roxas gave a strangled cry and tried to win free, but Noi only tightened her grip.

_Noi. Stop._

"What's the matter?" asked Noi in a tone of mock concern, "She used to do this all the time. Did you not like it?"

Xion felt her arms tighten their grip once again.

_Please. That's enough, don't…_

"Did it make you uncomfortable?"

Tighten.

_Noi, stop! You're hurting him!_

_*Of course I'm hurting him. __What do you think I'm trying to do?*_

"Did it frighten you?"

Tighten.

There was sickening _pop_ that echoed throughout the moonlit chamber.

_Roxas! Noi, what are you- I don't want this! I never wanted this!_

_*And once again, I call you a liar.*_

Noi sighed and released Roxas, who crumpled to the floor in a heap, wheezing.

_Roxas… I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry… I didn't want…_

Her eyes burned. She felt the beginning of tears pooling beneath her eyelids.

_*Are you really... s__eriously? __You're committed to your lies, you know that?*_

Noi wiped at her eyes in irritation as she gazed dispassionately at Roxas' vain attempts to draw a breath. Once he had finally managed to inhale, Noi kicked him in the ribs with all of her might. There was another resounding _pop._ Roxas was silent for a moment, eyes wide with shock, and then he screamed.

_Roxas! Noi, please! Stop this! I don't-… you know I don't want this! You have to! I'm not-… I'm not this kind of person! I don't hurt people like this! Especially people I care-_

She fell abruptly silent. How did she feel about Roxas?

_*... You're one complicated mess. __Tell you what. I'll give you once chance... o__nly... once chance... t__o sort this out your way. __But first…*_

The clangor of debris being pushed aside echoed up to them from the stairwell. Noi frowned down at Roxas.

"Well, this has certainly been fun, but… it seems that there are others who require my attention. Never fear, however; our dance shall resume once they have been dealt with."

"Xi…Xion, or who… whoever you are…" wheezed Roxas in protest, "Don't… don't do this. This isn't… this isn't…"

_Roxas... forgive me…_

Noi, however, bent over Roxas and cupped his cheek. It broke Xion's heart to see the pain in his eyes.

"But Roxas… Xion is dead. You killed her, remember?"

Xion cursed Noi. Xion screamed at Noi.

Something shifted within her heart, and she suddenly found herself standing before Roxas' sneering face as he killed her. This sudden change of locale was disorienting. However, as she stood frozen in half-remembered pain, his face changed; the sneer vanished and was replaced with an expression of shock and horror and panic and pain. Cuts and bruises faded into existence, one of his eyes became blackened, and tears began to stream down his face. Then her perspective shifted, and she was gazing up at him through half-lidded eyes as he held her in his arms.

"_No! Xion! Who else will I eat ice cream with?!"_

Xion gasped in a choked sob as the memory crashed over her like a bucket of ice water. She felt as though she was waking from a dream, or perhaps a nightmare. More memories followed after: eating ice cream on the clock tower with Roxas and Axel after their reunion; lying on a grassy slope in the moonlight with Roxas at her side; stumbling into his and Axel's room in the early hours of the morning, sick, and crawling over to him to fall into a fitful sleep; Roxas smiling at her; Roxas laughing with her; Roxas… Roxas…

_Get out!_

Noi, facing the staircase with her arms folded and a satisfied smirk fixed on her face, flinched in surprise.

_*Xion, what's- __I said I'd give you a-*_

_Out! Out! I remember- I remember everyth- why did you do that to… to…_

Noi was silent for a moment.

"Xion… I don't expect you to understand, but altering your memories like that made it easier for me to do what needs to be done. My purpose, my function, is to relieve your pain, and the easiest way to do that-"

_Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! You had no right! You had no right to-"_

"If I hadn't, your heart would have been destroyed!" said Noi angrily. "You would've ceased to exist! Is that really what you want?"

_I would have preferred that!_

"… So you would prefer to die, permanently, than to have the memories of someone you cared about taken from you."

_Yes!_

"Then I suppose you should be thankful that Roxas doesn't seem to feel the same."

Xion fell silent, sickened as the full ramifications of what Noi had said washed over her.

"No clever reply? No childish outburst? _That_ is why I am here. _That _is why I am doing what I'm doing right now. You don't have the slightest idea how to treat other people. You're selfish. You cause yourself more pain than your heart can withstand, so I have to be the one to deal with it. I can't kill you, which would be the quickest, surest solution, so I'm doing the next best thing."

Silence settled over the room.

_Just… get out… please… I don't want to do this anymore…_

"You're pathetic."

_I know._

"You're weak."

_I know._

"You're selfish."

_I know._

"… If you persist in this, you'll die. That's not a maybe. Your heart is already in tatters. I'm doing what I can to mend it, but-"

_You think that killing Roxas will mend it?! Get out! If you won't, then… then…_

She was unable to say how, but Xion managed to wrest control from Noi long enough fling her arm out to the side and summon her Keyblade.

_*Xion. __What are you doing?*_

She grasped it with both hands and turned it so that the tip was facing her chest. Her arms shook.

_*Xion, stop! __I'll leave, alright? __Doing this won't solve anything, so just…*_

She glanced up long enough to see Lea, Yen Sid, and the King standing in the mouth of the stairwell, frozen in shock. She smiled sadly.

_I'm sorry, Roxas. I never meant for things to turn out like this._

She felt a single tear winding its way down her cheek.

* * *

*** Version Notes: Revision 1.1**

*** AN2 - Emotionally. Draining. More to come soonish. **

*** All characters* and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**

*** Noi is an original character, though she shares Xion's body.**


	21. Unchained - Resonance

Unchained: Resonance

**-Roxas-**

* * *

The telltale chime of Xion's Keyblade manifesting brought Roxas' eyes wide open. He looked up from his position on the floor with blurred vision just in time to see Xion turn the blade so that it pointed at her own chest. He didn't understand what was happening, but the thought of Xion vanishing from his life once again brought him to his feet in a rush. His ribs screamed with pain. He scrambled toward her unsteadily.

"Xi-Xion!" he screamed in desperation, "don't-"

He stumbled and almost lost his footing as Xion's head snapped toward the sound of his voice, her eyes alight with confusion and panic. He saw Lea, Yen Sid, and the King rushing toward her out of his peripheral vision. Time seemed to be moving impossibly slowly.

"Xion, stop!" he shouted again, hoarsely. "I don't know what's going on, but- but put your Keyblade down and we can- we can… please…

Xion smiled sadly through her tears. She raised the Keyblade, preparing to plunge it into her heart, but hesitated for the briefest of moments. Her arms trembled as though they were being held in place by some unseen force. That hesitation was enough for Roxas to close the rest of the distance between them and tackle her bodily to the floor. The pain of the impact reduced his vision to a miniscule dot in a sea of darkness. He thought that he was going to be sick. Xion twisted and writhed beneath him, furious at the interference. Lea and the others moved to help, but Roxas shook his head and grabbed at her shoulders to hold her still. They wrestled with each other on the floor for some time; she shouted at him, cursed at him, and finally pleaded with him, crying that destroying her heart was the only way for him to live. Her arguments and her actions grew ever wilder and more desperate until Roxas, hating himself, slapped her across the face with all of his might.

A shocked stillness settled over the room.

Roxas panted with pain.

Xion panted with pain.

"You… you hit me," she whispered, eyes wide in disbelief. "You actually…"

"Yeah…" wheezed Roxas. "Yeah, I did. D'you… d'you want me to say sorry? 'Cause right now, I don't th-… think that's gonna happen."

Xion stared at him for a moment, and then raised a tentative hand to his chest. He flinched, but didn't move.

"… I'm sorry," she said after a moment, and Roxas knew that she meant it. "She hurt you… I told her not to, that I didn't want… that I didn't want that sort of… but she insisted and I couldn't-"

"Xi-Xion. Stop. Stop. Just… wait." Eyes pressed shut against the pain ripping through his chest, Roxas squeezed her shoulders. "If I… If I let you go, you won't try… won't try to… you won't do anything, right?"

Xion averted her gaze in shame.

"… No."

After considering her for a moment through one half-opened eye, Roxas released her and flopped backward onto the floor in exhaustion. He heard her do the same.

"… Idiot," he said after a moment. "What were you thinking?"

Xion offered no reply.

Roxas sighed in irritation. His nerves were shot.

"Let try a different question then. Who is this 'she' you were talking about?"

"I'm not really sure… how to answer that," replied Xion wearily. "But I guess the best way to describe her is… well, an evil twin sounds ridiculous in this situation, but I suppose that's what she really is."

Yen Sid cleared his throat importantly.

"Not evil as we think of it," he announced. "Merely… of the dark. Single-minded and absent of feelings such as love or compassion to be sure, yet…" He frowned at Xion.

"… Glossing over the fact that you couldn't possibly know _anything _about Noi," said Xion in an even voice, "that actually describes her pretty accurately."

"Noi?" said Roxas blankly.

"I know a great deal more than you seem to suspect," replied Yen Sid with rapidly mounting irritation. "Are you truly so arrogant as to believe that your situation is unique? You are not the first replica to be born from the heart of a Keyblade bearer, nor do I imagine that you will be the last. More importantly, your predicament is not the first of its kind with which I have had to become personally involved. I have walked amongst a graveyard littered with Keyblades fallen from the-"

"We get it," said Xion, Roxas, Lea, and the King in unison. Yen Sid exhaled heavily.

"But if you knew what was happening, why didn't you say anything?" asked Xion pointedly. "You could've prevented this whole thing."

"… I saw no need. I hoped that you would prove strong enough to master your pain once you had been reunited with Roxas. Thought I must admit, I placed heavy expectations upon Roxas as well."

"Me?" asked Roxas in bewilderment.

"You," confirmed Yen Sid. "When you first came face to face with Xion in this very room, you displayed a level of understanding and compassion that I had not expected. The manner in which you so readily accepted her into your confidence gave me reason to believe that, over time, you would be able to ease her pain and mend her heart. However…" He redirected his gaze to Xion. "… It seems that Xion was not strong enough. So that pain continued to grow and fester until it became a threat to her heart; at that point, it seems, Noi awoke and began to take matters into her own hands."

"So, assuming that all of that's true," said Xion, "why can't I hear or sense Noi now? She seems to be gone."

Yen Sid snorted in derision but managed to turn it into a cough.

"Noi will never truly leave you. She is as much a part of you as your arms or your heart. If you are truly unable to sense her presence, then it is likely that she has fallen back into slumber. As to why that would be the case…"

He smiled enigmatically and turned to leave.

"Come, Lea. Your Majesty. Let us leave these two alone for a time. I suspect that the danger has passed... and the two of them have much to discuss."

Lea, having been remarkably quiet up until this point, folded his arms and glared at Yen Sid in defiance.

"If you think for one second that after all that's happened-"

"That was not a request," growled Yen Sid ominously. "I will reduce you to a smouldering pile of ash and sweep you from the room if I have to, but you will _not _jeopardize the resolution of this situation by acting the overbearing mother hen."

"… Best do as he says, Lea," agreed the King. "There's nothing more we can do here."

Lea huffed in irritation and shoved his way past the both of them and into the staircase. Yen Sid and the King watched his retreating back warily for a moment before following.

And then Roxas was alone with Xion.

* * *

***AN - I didn't want to pollute the resolution chapter with obligatory explanations of Noi and such, so think of this chapter as transitional. The next chapter will be the last in the Unchained arc and will likely be a feels trip, so pack your bags.**

***All Characters (with the exception of Noi) and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted. **


	22. Ties That Bind

Ties that Bind

* * *

**-Roxas and Xion-**

* * *

Roxas heard a soft rustling from somewhere around his feet after his friends' footsteps had faded into the distance. Too exhausted to sit up, he continued to stare blankly at the ceiling. After a moment, he felt a light pressure on his legs and Xion's face swam into view above his own; her eyes were red and puffy, as was her cheek where Roxas had struck her. The sight made him feel absurdly guilty. Hesitantly, he reached upward and brushed his thumb across the reddened, swollen skin in apology. He had no doubt that she would bear a magnificent bruise.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I shouldn't have done that."

Xion smiled wearily and placed a hand over his own, holding it against her cheek.

"No… you did what you had to," she said gently. "I wasn't… I don't know. I wasn't myself. I was convinced that… well… that I was about to lose you. I did the only thing I could think of to prevent that, but… now that I think back on it, it was kind of silly, wasn't it?"

"It was," agreed Roxas weakly. "You scared the daylights out of me. I thought… I thought that I was about to lose my best friend… again." His eyes had begun to burn. He wiped at them feebly. "I… I couldn't…" He trailed off into silence, unable to continue. He became aware that he was crying only when Xion reached up and tenderly brushed the tears from his cheek.

"You've… remembered?" she asked quietly.

Roxas, unwilling to test his voice, nodded against her hand.

Xion smiled uncertainly.

"Would you… would you like to hit me again?"

Roxas shook his head. His lip trembled.

Xion smiled sadly and pulled him into her arms, hugging him tightly. Roxas buried his face in her shoulder. He suddenly felt as though all of the pain and loneliness he had experienced since Xion's death had finally reached the point of overflowing; as soon as he felt the shelter of her arms around him and the warmth of her body pressed up against his own, his last vestige of restraint crumbled and he found himself sobbing unashamedly into her robes.

"Wh… where did you _go?_" he managed between choked sobs. "Why did you just _leave_ like that? I was l-l-lonely without you, idiot. I didn't… there were so m-many things I wanted to tell that I didn't… that I never…"

Xion tenderly ran her fingers through Roxas' hair, silent.

They sat embracing on the floor for a long time, Roxas' occasional cough or sniffle the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

"… I'm sorry," said Xion quietly when Roxas seemed to have exhausted his tears. "I acted as I did because I thought that having you destroy me was the only way to prevent your heart from being absorbed into my own. That was the last thing I wanted. After that, with your memories… I knew that they would fade with time, so I just… accelerated the process. I didn't want you to have to live with pain of-"

"… didn't work," murmured Roxas into her shoulder.

Xion blinked and looked down at the top of his head.

"Didn't…?"

"I don't… I don't know what happened or… what went wrong," said Roxas, sitting upright and wiping at his eyes, "but… I don't think that I ever truly forgot about you completely. I would have… dreams, I guess. I recognize them now as fragments of the memories from the time we spent together before… you know… so I don't think whatever you did worked… at least not completely."

He sniffled and wiped at his eyes again.

"Actually… didn't… didn't Yen Sid say something about that?"

"Yen Sid?" replied Xion sourly. "I wouldn't be surprised at this point. When was this?"

"I dunno… maybe it… oh, it was right after we met each other for the first time after waking up. He had this long-winded monologue about the memory situation, I think. And then…"

"'Ties of the heart are not easily severed,'" supplied Xion thoughtfully. "Makes it sound like he knew about that as well…"

Roxas made a noncommittal noise in his throat.

"Dunno… but… _this_ is real, right? Not another one of those dreams?" He reached out and squeezed Xion's shoulders as if to affirm her existence. "I'm not… I'm not going to wake up and find that you're still-"

"Roxas," interrupted Xion gently. "I'm real. I'm not going anywhere." She leaned forward and slipped her arms around Roxas' neck. "… I promise."

They stared into each other's eyes in silence.

And then Xion's mouth covered his own. The kiss was soft, tender, and warm. She tasted of tears and sweat, but Roxas found that he didn't care. When they broke apart, he realized that she was crying; tears streamed silently down her cheeks and fell into his lap.

Xion wiped feebly at her eyes.

"I'm sorry… I'm sorry, Roxas… for everything I've done to you. I… I acted under the pretense of selflessness, but I was really… really being selfish. I had no right to take your m-memories from you. I realize that now." She looked up at him tremulously. "Can you… can you forgive me? If not, I understand… I'll just…" She trailed off uncertainly.

Roxas considered her, unsmiling.

"No."

Xion flinched as though he had struck her.

"No… because that would mean admitting that you acted deliberately to hurt me. That's silly. I agree that some of your decisions have been… questionable, but I don't believe for one second that you would ever knowingly do anything that would bring me pain. You acted unknowingly and with good intentions; that makes what you did a mistake. Did it hurt? Yes. It hurt a lot. Tremendously. But, like I said back at the clock tower…"

Roxas reached up to brush the tears from Xion's cheeks.

"… I think it's alright if friends hurt each other sometimes."

Xion looked into his eyes for the briefest of moments, lip trembling, and then she collapsed against him with a wail of release, sobbing incoherently. Roxas smiled and stroked her hair as he held her, gently rocking side to side. He felt as though he could almost see all of her pain and heartache being carried away by her tears as she cried into his chest; it was a release, he knew, that she had desperately needed.

Roxas couldn't have said how long they had sat there; he thought, perhaps, that he might have begun to doze off, for he was suddenly aware that Xion, having cried herself into exhaustion, was now sleeping peacefully, curled up against his chest. The sight filled his heart with an inexpressible feeling of warmth and contentment.

"Xion…" he said quietly. She mumbled a sleepy complaint and nuzzled closer against him.

Roxas smiled and gathered her up into his arms.

They were halfway down the ruined staircase, now brightly lit by hovering plumes of sky-blue flame that had undoubtedly been conjured by Yen Sid, when Xion groaned and opened her eyes. Roxas glanced down at her, grinning.

"Morning. Sleep well?"

Xion smiled sleepily. "Of course. But… waking up was the best part."

"Hm? Why's that?"

When she didn't reply, Roxas looked down and found her gazing up at him, smiling tremulously.

"Because I know. I know, when you look at me like that… that you remember me," she said simply. "And it makes me feel complete. Whole. Memories… memories are the ties that bind our hearts together. I realize that now."

"So does that mean," teased Roxas, "that you'll never try to mess with mine again? Like if you say something embarrassing and you want to erase-"

Xion affected a scowl and feebly punched his chest.

"No, idiot… it means… well….… it means that we'll have to… make more."

She blushed furiously.

"… We will," agreed Roxas, smiling to himself. "I promise."

* * *

*** AN - And that's a wrap. For this arc, anyway. Now the real story begins. :D  
* AN2 - I changed the title of the previous chapter to "Unchained: Resonance" so as to prevent two separate "Ties That Bind" chapters. Apologies for the confusion.**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	23. Miscommunication: Reprise

Miscommunication: Reprise

**-Roxas-**

* * *

Roxas awoke to find Xion's face hovering inches above his own, eyes alight with mischief. He blinked groggily and tried to push her away with a hand on her forehead. When his efforts yielded a giggle and naught else, he exhaled irritably and rolled onto his side. He felt the mattress compress slightly, and then his bedcovers were yanked from his grasp. Cold air rushed into the void and sent goose bumps racing up his bare back. He flinched and sat up in an undignified rush with his arms held over his face, feeling extremely vulnerable and more than a little embarrassed. He could feel a flush creeping up his neck.

"Oh gods," drawled a male voice, "you still wear little bear pattern. What'll you give me not to tell Xion?"

Roxas peeked out from between his arms and saw Lea standing at the foot of his bed fully clothed and freshly washed. Roxas' bedcovers were nowhere to be seen; nor, it seemed, was Xion. Relieved, Roxas let his arms fall away and flopped lazily onto his back.

"Hey, none of that," said Lea. "Get up and go wash. Yen Sid and the King have something they want to speak to us about before we leave."

Roxas groaned in protest, but sat up all the same. He yawned, stretching, and rubbed at his eyes sleepily.

"Good man," said Axel, stifling a yawn of his own. "If you hurry, I won't tell Xion about your-"

"She already knows," said Roxas distractedly, glancing down at the splotch of swollen purplish-red skin covering his ribs where Xion had kicked him. He poked at it tenderly and winced when the pain began to prick at him in warning. When Lea didn't reply, Roxas looked up and found him standing frozen with mouth firmly shut. His skin seemed unnaturally pale.

Roxas blinked innocently.

"Axel? Something wrong?"

Lea slapped a shaking hand to his forehead and sat down in the floor with a muffled thump.

"I've failed them," he said to no one in particular. "These kids were under my care and I… oh gods, what have I done? There's so much that they don't know and it's my responsibility to… but if they've already…"

Lea looked up at Roxas, wary. Roxas tilted his head.

"Er… Roxas… when you say that Xion already knows about your… ah… well… what did you mean by that? Did you really just mean that you've-"

"She's seen them."

Lea flopped onto his side as though he had been shot.

"Man oh man… what do I do with this?" he mumbled to himself. "What'll I do if Xion ends up… but can she even…?" Still lying in the floor, Lea wiped a hand across his forehead in mild panic. "So I'll have to buy… then I'll have to explain how to use… oh gods…"

"Axel? Axel, are you crying?"

Lea pushed himself into an unsteady sitting position.

"No…" he replied. "Just lamenting how much more difficult my job just became." He looked at Roxas with what seemed to be an odd mixture of pride and disapproval. "Not… not that it's really any of my business, but… how many times…?"

"Just once," said Roxas quickly. He felt his cheeks beginning to redden and hastily redirected his gaze to the ceiling. "It, um… happened at the inn. She was in our room and you had left to go talk to the manager or whatever, and then-"

"While she was sick," said Lea in a thin, strained voice. "While she was… Roxas… man oh man." He lapsed into a thoughtful silence. Roxas, beginning to lose interest in the conversation, slid to the floor and began to rummage through his bag for something to wear to the bath.

"… I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this," he said sullenly after collecting a handful of clothing. "It was embarrassing, but it was an accident. I just kind of… it was bad timing on both our parts."

Lea stared up at him incredulously.

"Bad… Roxas, that kind of thing doesn't… happen by accident. Well, it can… I suppose, but this thing with timing… it's generally consensual, so I don't really see how you can-"

"What are you talking about?" interrupted Roxas, pulling a loose T-shirt over his head. "Of course it was an accident. She just looked over at the wrong time, but I assumed that she was… so it was partially my fault and-"

"Rox-Roxas, wait. What are you talking about?"

They stared at each other.

"Xion, ah… well, Xion kind of accidentally saw my boxers when she was in our room. I thought she was asleep, so I thought it'd be a good time to change and-"

"Say that sooner, will ya?" interjected Lea loudly. He flopped back against the wall. "Gods, do you have any idea how close I just came to having heart failure? And then the thought of having the same conversation with Xion…" He reached up to massage his temples. "I just lost about ten years from my life thanks to you."

"Um… Nobodies don't-"

"Not the point, I'm no longer a Nobody, and… just… go, Roxas. Go get cleaned up and head down to the old man's study when you're done. I'll go ahead and take your stuff down there."

Roxas blinked innocently.

* * *

*** AN - Oh Axel. More to come!**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	24. War Room

War Room

**-Xion-**

* * *

_Roxas remembers me._

Xion held the thought and turned it in her mind, delicate and tender. It filled her heart with a feeling of elation that she had never hoped to experience.

_Roxas remembers me… and he forgave me._

The image of Roxas' bloody, bruised, tear-streaked face looming above her own, eyes bright with shock and panic, was still burned firmly into her memories. It was something, Xion feared, that she would never forget, yet she found that it bore less pain into her heart than it had in the past; she had received the happy ending that she had longer for so desperately, and Roxas, well…

"'I think I preferred him when he was a zombie.'"

Xion drifted out of her reverie and looked up. Lea had shouldered open the door to the study and was making his way toward her, a bulging checkered duffle bag slung beneath one arm. His own pack, black with crimson swirls, was draped over the other. He glanced up at Xion and grinned good-naturedly.

"No, don't get up. I've got it."

He dropped Roxas' bag unceremoniously to the floor in front of the table upon which Xion sat, feet dangling, and carefully laid his own beside it. Xion blinked at Lea and tilted her head. Lea's smile faltered and became, Xion thought, rather strained.

"Xi… ah man, sorry, you looked just like Roxas for a second."

Xion frowned innocently.

"Is that a problem, Axel?"

Lea waved a hand dismissively.

"Not really, no. I just… the two of you," he muttered distractedly. He turned his head this way and that, looking for a place to sit. Xion patted the edge of the table beside her.

"You could come up here if you like, Axel. It kind of reminds me of the clock tower, you know?" She swung her feet in demonstration.

Lea waved the offer away.

"Nah, my feet would actually touch the floor, so I'd better not. I'm not sure that the old man would like us sitting on that table either. It's probably as old as he is and there's no telling what kind of enchantments and stuff he's put on it. Or traps. Seems like the kind of thing he'd do." He instead settled for a plump, winged armchair near the door; he dragged it over to the table and dropped into it with a muffled thump.

"This'll do. Little bear shouldn't be much longer; he was almost done in the bath by the time I went back to my room to get my stuff, so…"

Xion blinked in confusion.

"Little bear? Do you… mean Roxas, or…?"

Lea, now gazing idly at the ceiling with his hands crossed behind his head, made a noise of confirmation in his throat.

"Yeah, who else d'you think I'd be talking about?"

_Little… bear? What's that about? Is that a nickname he's come up with for Roxas?_

Xion eyed Lea doubtfully.

"So… when did we start calling Roxas Little Bear, and why?"

Lea rolled his eyes at the stars painted overhead.

"You know why. He just told me about the accident you two had back at the inn, so it seemed appropriate."

_Accident? What accident? _

Xion felt a flush beginning to creep its way up her neck.

_Roxas… you didn't…_

"… Axel," said Xion uncertainly, "I don't… I really don't know what you're talking about. Nothing… there were no accidents of any kind at the inn… and definitely not anything involving bears."

Lea pulled his gaze away from the ceiling with a sudden, sharp movement. Xion was alarmed to see a grin rapidly spreading across his face.

"Axel?"

"No accidents huh? Nothing at all?"

Xion shook her head.

"And definitely nothing involving bears?"

Xion shook her head once again.

"That's interesting." Lea winked at her. "Well, I have something to tell you later… maybe. It'll depend on Roxas, but… ah, speaking of."

Xion followed Lea's gaze as he turned his head and saw Roxas standing uncertainly in the doorway. Roxas smiled briefly at Xion and then returned his gaze to Lea, wary. Lea, by contrast, was looking at Roxas in a manner not entirely dissimilar to a wolf considering its prey. Roxas swallowed and looked back to Xion.

"Come on in, little bear," said Lea abruptly, making both Roxas and Xion jump. Roxas' gaze darted to Xion in a mild panic, and then returned to Lea, who tilted his head and blinked innocently. "Something wrong, Roxas? There's another chair in here somewhere. Gotta be. This tower is nothing but chairs and bookshelves and dust."

Continuing to gaze warily at Lea, Roxas entered the room and made his way over to the table upon which Xion sat. He hopped up beside her in silence, visibly uncomfortable.

Xion frowned up at the beads of sweat that dotted Roxas' cheek. Concerned, she gently nudged his shoulder with her own.

"Roxas? What's wrong?"

Roxas blinked and looked over at her.

"Huh? Ah, nothing… nothing important." He scratched at his cheek uncomfortably. "Anyway, how are you feeling? Better than last night?" Xion's brow twitched in suspicion, but she let the abrupt change of topic stand.

"Yeah… yeah, loads better," she replied hesitantly. "I feel like that was the best I've slept in ages. It was… odd, having everything I'd been worrying about for the past several months just be…" she gestured vaguely, "gone, all of a sudden. I liked it. It makes me feel like things are slowly changing back to the way they used to be."

Roxas smiled knowingly.

"Well… yeah. Yeah, I think they are too." He looked at Lea. "Don't you think so, Axel?"

Before Lea could reply, the door to the study swung open with a groan of protest and Yen Sid ducked through it, followed by the King. Xion thought that they both looked troubled. Yen Sid, his gaze immediately settling upon Roxas and Xion, scowled and snapped his fingers. Xion felt the table shudder beneath her. She heeded the warning and slid to her feet just before the ancient oak sprang to life and bucked violently, throwing Roxas unceremoniously to the floor. Lea guffawed.

Yen Sid swept past Roxas with nary a glance and settled himself in his throne; the King moved up to stand beside the chair in which Lea was lounging. Xion, doing her utmost to suppress a grin, offered a hand to Roxas; he accepted it and climbed to his feet, wincing.

"I presume that we are all adequately refreshed after the night's activites," began Yen Sid without preamble, "and that the three of you are ready to resume your journey. While this matter concerning hearts and memories was unquestionably of extreme importance whilst it sat unresolved and festering, we must now turn our attention to a danger and a concern far greater while it still lies within our power. I am speaking, of course, of Sora."

The King cleared his throat.

"It might be easier for them to understand if I explain it," he said apologetically. Yen Sid considered this in silence, and then nodded his consent.

"Alright guys," began the King, turning slightly so that he could face Roxas, Xion, and Lea at the same time, "here's how things stand. The short version is that we don't know where Sora is or what kind of condition he's in. Kairi and Riku are missing as well. We still don't know exactly what happened when you two were kicked out of Sora's heart, nor do we know why you've regained your old bodies. Yen Sid seems to think that the expulsion was triggered by Noi's awakening. I don't see any reason to believe otherwise, so I agree with him. I do have a few theories about why you two regained your old bodies, but they're just theories for now; I don't want to say anything until I know more. No reason to give you guys more to worry about than you need." He glanced at Yen Sid, who nodded and cleared his throat noisily.

"And so your primary objective," he said, "should be to locate Sora. As I indicated previously, this matter with your memories was little more than a detour. It was a necessary detour, to be sure, yet it is time that we get back on course. This news that Lea has brought to us about the state of the Destiny Islands is troubling. Heartless rarely congregate in such vast numbers; it is possible that there is a force of which we are yet unaware that is directing them. For such an anomaly to manifest shortly after Sora's disappearance is overtly suspicious." He settled his gaze upon Lea. "You are certain that Sora was not present on the islands?"

Lea shook his head.

"Nah, we didn't see him, and we combed that place over. We actually got a pretty good look at it before the heartless showed up."

The King frowned thoughtfully.

"Is it possible… do you think that Sora might've somehow ended up on some other world? I don't know why that'd be the case, but there is precedent for that sort of thing."

"… Yes," mused Yen Sid tentatively, "now that I think on it… though that situation was exceptional; I sincerely doubt that the circumstances could be easily replicated."

The King considered that for a moment, and then waved his hand dismissively.

"Welp, be that as it may. It won't be efficient at all, but the best way to tackle this might be for you guys to take a look around all of the nearby worlds and find out if anyone's seen Sora, Kairi, or Riku. I know that sounds tedious, but finding Sora is extremely important; Yen Sid and I will be looking into the heartless problem while you guys are doing that. The three of you can use corridors of darkness to travel between worlds, right? That'll save you a lot of time."

"But take great care," added Yen Sid, "that you do not put yourselves in unnecessary danger. The more quickly Sora is located, the easier this situation will be to resolve, but your own safety is your first priority. Do not do anything overtly reckless."

Lea, having absorbed everything in relative silence, made a show of sighing resignedly.

"Don't worry, I'll keep these two safe. You two go study your heartless or whatever. We'll find Sora."

_And what happens when we do? _Thought Xion uncertainly.

Roxas glanced at her uncomfortably; he seemed to be harboring a similar worry.

* * *

*** AN - And away we go. I'm really excited about everything I have planned for this part of the story. Look forward to it! ^^**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	25. Embers - Part I

Embers – Part I

Day 01 – Deep Jungle

* * *

Roxas, breathing heavily, brushed a fall of sweat-sodden hair away from his eyes. His fingers came away wet; he wiped them on the back of his shorts in disgust. No sooner had he accomplished that than he stumbled over some unseen root hidden by the undergrowth. He saw Lea's hand dart toward him from somewhere to his left, but it was far too late; Roxas tumbled face-first into a humus of dirt, twigs, and half-rotted leaves. Lea and Xion stumbled to a halt on either side of him.

Roxas pushed himself onto his hands and knees and spat a glob of some unidentified debris onto the forest floor. He wiped his mouth with a shaking hand.

"I think… I hate the jungle," he said evenly.

Lea made a noise of assent as he and Xion each put a hand beneath Roxas' arms and helped him to his feet. No sooner had he been righted than Xion stumbled backward, presumably over the same root that had felled Roxas, and grabbed at the back of Roxas' shirt in panic; Roxas staggered backward, stepped in a hole hidden beneath a pile of leaves, and they both crashed to the ground in a tangled heap. Lea, for once too exhausted to make any jokes, dropped to the forest floor beside them in defeat.

"I give up," said Roxas wearily, deciding that putting forth the effort to disentangle himself from Xion would have required more of an investment than he was presently willing to make. "It's almost completely dark, so… let's stop here for the night… please…"

Xion pushed at Roxas' shoulder feebly.

"Roxas… get off. You're sweaty… and you really stink."

"So do you," Roxas pointed out sourly, though he pushed himself into a sitting position and scooted away from her all the same. Xion sat up and rubbed her chin where the back of Roxas' head had slammed into when they had fallen.

"And what is your head made out of?"

Roxas grunted an apology and flopped onto his back in exhaustion; he had lost count of the number of times the three of them had tripped over some debris or stepped in an unseen hole and fallen to the ground since they had arrived in the world only hours before. They were all dirty, bruised, aching, and exhausted; their first foray into the jungle had been firmly rebuffed.

"Y'know, I got the impression that Sora didn't have anywhere near this much trouble," said Lea idly. Roxas and Xion glanced over and found him slumped against a craggy boulder dotted with lichen, legs crossed and hands folded behind his head. "'course, there were paths back then. I haven't seen the first trail since we landed; it's like the whole world is new, untouched."

"Maybe… we just came out in the wrong place," offered Xion uncertainly. "That happens sometimes, right?"

"It does," admitted Lea, "but still… you said that you were thinking of that camp or whatever when you opened the Corridor, right Roxas?"

"I was," said Roxas, continuing to gaze up at the stars peeking through the canopy overheard. "But I only know about it from Sora's memories, and he might've misremembered it or something."

"Trying to use Corridors with something other than one of our own memories acting as an anchor is kinda dodgy anyway," added Lea, "so I guess we should be thankful that it even got us here."

"Thankful," said Roxas dryly. "Sure."

"Well, compared to the alternatives…" began Lea.

Xion left them to their banter and shuffled over to their packs where they had dropped them. A moments' rummaging produced a small bundle of tightly-wrapped sandwiches that Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather had prepared for their journey; they were plain, but the more filling food required cooking over an open fire, which they didn't have. Axel could always start one, she supposed, but she was unsure of how such a thing would pan out in the middle of a jungle. Xion frowned at the sandwiches in resignation.

"Hey Xion, see if you can find some of the meat," called Lea from somewhere behind her. "The little thin pieces, not the big ones. Think I'm gonna start a fire, so we can cook them on that."

Xion looked over her shoulder; she was just barely able to discern Lea's silhouette in the semi-darkness. She was about to voice her concerns regarding the kindling of a fire while surrounded by nothing but trees when a small bulb of flame winked into being between them, bathing the clearing in a dim orange light. The flame spun and tumbled, unsupported, as Lea climbed to his feet and began to gather likely-looking rocks to use in a fire pit. "Don't want to risk anything more," he said distractedly, "so if we want a real fire we'll need to build a pit, or…" He nudged Roxas with his toe when his search brought him within proximity, and Roxas sat up, grumbling. He reluctantly joined Lea in his search, and moments later a fire was crackling merrily between them, bathing their faces in a ruddy glow. Xion produced a compact cooking spit from their bags ("how much did those three manage to stuff in there?" asked Roxas), and then there was nothing to do but stare into the flames as the meat slowly browned.

Xion, regretting her earlier terseness, scooted around the fire to sit next to Roxas. He smiled at her uncertainly.

"Look," she began quietly, "about earlier…"

She faltered, unsure of how best to phrase her apology. Her gaze moved restlessly over Roxas' face as she tried to think of what to say, settling first upon his eyes and the dancing flames reflected there, and then sliding to his cheekbones, visible only by the faint shadow they cast in the flickering firelight.

"…It's fine," said Roxas hesitantly. "I didn't really… it didn't really bother me. You worry too much."

Xion found herself watching the pulse in the hollow of his neck where his shirt, soaked with sweat, hung away from his chest.

"Well…" she said absently, "that's… that's good. So don't feel like you have to…" She trailed off into silence. Roxas, frowning bemusedly, reached over and flicked her forehead. She let out a yelp of surprise and raised an injured gaze to his eyes, wincing.

"Lighten up. You're acting weird. I said it was fine, didn't I?"

Xion rubbed her forehead sourly, her cheeks reddening. Roxas held her gaze for a moment longer, smiling enigmatically, and then turned back to the fire.

Though none of them could have said when such a thing appeared, they were suddenly aware of a hazy figure standing at the edge of the clearing; the firelight cast deep shadows across its robes, black on black. Its edges appeared oddly blurred. Roxas, tensing, began to rise to his feet. Lea quietly told him to sit down.

"Who… are you?" asked Xion timidly.

The figure stared silently at the fire from beneath the folds of its hood.

When it stepped purposefully into the clearing, Roxas, Xion, and Lea all came to their feet in a rush. Keyblades winked into existence in a flurry of light. The figure halted.

"What do you want?" asked Lea evenly. The figure reluctantly pulled its gaze away from the flames and redirected its attention to Lea. It tilted its head and held its hand out to its side as if to summon a Keyblade. It opened and closed a gloved hand experimentally, yet nothing happened. The figure lowered its arm and, seeming to lose interest, returned its gaze to the fire. Lea blinked in bewilderment.

"Can't you speak?" blurted Roxas. "If you can… what's your name?"

The figure turned its head to look at him. It gazed at him, silent, for a time, and then it reached up to lower its hood.

Roxas felt something twist within his stomach when the firelight spilled across the figure's face. Xion gasped, clutching at Roxas' arm. Lea swore loudly.

* * *

*** AN - More to come!**

*** All characters and locations are the properties of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	26. Embers - Part II

Embers – Part II

Night 01 – Deep Jungle

-Roxas-

* * *

A pall of shock had fallen over the campsite when the cloaked figure had revealed its face. Roxas, always impulsive, always the first to act, had placed himself in front of Xion, screening her from view. His Keyblade sent shards of firelight racing across the treetops as he leveled it at the figure in silent warning.

Heterochromatic eyes gleamed blue and amber as the figure tilted its head in confusion.

"… That's not him," said Roxas quietly.

"But… then… who is it?" Xion's voice wavered uncertainly. "What is it?"

Roxas had no answer.

Appearing once again to lose interest, the figure turned back to the fire.

Deciding that it would be best to put words to the question that was foremost in all of their minds, Roxas cleared his throat. The figure ignored him.

"Why do you… look like Sora?"

The figure continued to gaze silently at the fire. Roxas, uncertain that it had heard him, began to repeat the question; before he had finished, however, the figure spoke. Its voice was airy and feeble; it wasn't the voice of something malicious, Roxas supposed, but nor was it quite human. The best word he could think of to describe such a thing was 'hollow.' He felt a sudden stab of pity.

"Not… light," said the figure weakly without removing its gaze from the fire. "Cold… lonely in the darkness." Roxas felt Xion fidget uncomfortably against his back. "Sora… yes, once. Still. Heart broken, shattered, lost." The figure turned its gaze upon Roxas. Tufts of its hair, he realized, so similar to Sora's own, were beginning to loosen their hold on its scalp. Its skin, roughly the same coloring as Sora's, was riddled with cracks and fissures that glistened wetly in the firelight. The feeling of pity intensified. "Pieces. Many pieces. Some warm. Others cold. I… am warm. But cold. So very… very cold."

Roxas, though still wary, dismissed his Keyblade. It vanished in a plume of light. Lea, visible on the far side of the fire, did the same. Xion didn't move.

"Sora…" breathed the figure, "is wounded. His heart…. heart could not suffer darkness. Such darkness. Fragmented feelings, emotions, memories… wounded, yet not destroyed. We remain. Embers of the fire that once was."

Roxas' head was pounding. He had been well past the point of exhaustion when the figure had made its appearance, and this…

"Assuming that what you're saying is true," said Roxas evenly, "what do you want us to do? How would we go about saving Sora, assuming something like that's even possible at this point?"

The figure smiled sadly.

"Destroy… me."

Roxas blinked, uncertain that he had heard correctly.

"Destroy you?"

The figure nodded solemnly.

"Destroy me… and the others. Return… we will return to Sora when our tether to the realms of light… is severed. Some will fight. I… will not. I am cold. Lonely. I wish to return to the warmth of Sora's heart."

Silence settled over the campsite following this proclamation. Roxas, unsure of how respond, scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably. He felt a slight tug on his arm, and then Xion was whispering in his ear.

_"I believe him," _she said quietly. _"The circumstances are different, but… I know exactly how it… how he feels. If there's no other way, then…"_

Roxas swallowed uncomfortably.

_"… Do you… do you want me to do it?"_

"No," said Roxas firmly. Xion flinched. "Of course I don't. I… just…" He looked back to the figure. "This… this is the only way, right? To help Sora?" The figure nodded that it was so. "And it… will we…"

"Should your mission succeed…" breathed the figure, "we will not meet again. You will, perhaps… see my influence in Sora's actions and emotions, yet… I am nothing more than a fragment. It is only due to the overwhelming… power of Sora's heart that I have been granted this feeble imitation of life. I am but an ember, nothing more. You may think of me as the ember of Sora's loneliness, if that eases the burden of that which I ask of you."

Roxas considered the figure in silence. He felt something twist uncomfortably in the pit of his stomach when he recalled his Keyblade. The figure smiled at the slashes of firelight that the silvery blade threw across its face. It was crying, Roxas realized; tears were streaming silently down cracked, rotting cheeks and disintegrating into glimmers of light before they could hit the ground. His resolution wavered.

"This… is the only way," said the figure soothingly, sensing his hesitation. "It will help Sora, and it will… it will be a mercy… to me as well." The figure knelt before Roxas and lowered its head, exposing its neck. Here too the flesh was well into the process of decay; a section as wide as Roxas' hand sloughed off even as he looked on, disquieted.

"Why… why do you look like that?" he asked after a moment.

The figure didn't look up.

"Because… this is how Sora feels when he is alone. He needs… friends to surround himself with. Love, warmth, laughter, companionship… Sora craves these things. They are as essential to the well-being of his heart as is air to his lungs. Alone… he feels as though he is rotting from within. It is… torment."

Roxas bit his lip. He raised his Keyblade uncertainly.

An absolute stillness had settled over the camp. Lea and Xion watched him in silence.

"… Thank you," said the figure tremulously, "… for sending me home."

Roxas lowered his Keyblade.

"I… I can't," he said in a dead voice. "I can't do this. It's not…"

He saw Xion kneeling on the ground before him, baring her neck so that he might take her life.

"I'm sorry. I…"

The figure burst into flame. Roxas looked past the fire, startled, and saw Lea standing with arm outstretched. His face was impassive.

"… Warm," breathed the figure, seemingly indifferent to any pain given by the flames. "So… so warm. Thank you… flame-bearer. Thank you, all… of you. You must… save Sora before the…. before the embers… fade..."

The figure began to disintegrate into shards of light. They were carried upward with the smoke, vanishing alongside it… and then the figure was gone.

He could feel Lea and Xion's stares. Roxas flung his Keyblade to the ground in a fit of frustration and embarrassment. The blade bounced once and then winked from existence with a faint chime. Wordless, Roxas turned and stalked off toward the sheltering darkness of the trees. Neither Lea nor Xion made any move to stop him.

_'Never forget… that's the truth'._

He had thought that he had moved past that.

Once he felt that he had put sufficient distance between himself and the campsite, Roxas flopped to the ground with a muffled thump. Storming off had been childish, he knew… yet he found that, just then, he wanted nothing more than to be alone. He wanted time to think. He loved Lea and Xion dearly, but…

_'I worry about you all the time, Roxas.'_

Roxas kneaded his forehead in frustration.

The soft crackle of leaves crunching underfoot seized his attention. He gazed out into the darkness, wary, yet made no move to climb to his feet.

"Who's there?"

The footsteps drew to a halt.

"Roxas?"

_Xion. Of course it's Xion._

"You should get back to the campsite," said Roxas in what he thought to be a reasonably good imitation of an offhand voice. "I'm fine. It's dark out here and you can't really see, so-"

He felt the warmth of a finger pressed upon his lips. He fell silent obediently. There was more rustling, followed by a soft thump as Xion seated herself on the ground somewhere in front of him.

"Roxas," she began quietly, her voice drifting out of the darkness, "I don't know what that was about, exactly, but… if you want to talk about it…"

Roxas made a disagreeable noise in his throat. Under different circumstances, he would have welcomed Xion's company. Just then, however…

"Xion…" he said gently, wearily, "I appreciate this, and I'm sorry that I made you worry, but right now… I just want to be alone. I'm not… depressed or anything like that; I just need some time to think about some things. I thought I had gotten over-"

"It hurts, doesn't it?" said Xion softly.

Roxas faltered.

"… It? What're you…?"

"Guilt," said Xion gently.

_That's not fair._

"… How did you know?" asked Roxas in a defeated voice. "I didn't really say anything that…"

"Intuition," replied Xion teasingly. "But… I guess you could say that I just… figured it out. With everything that Sora… thing was telling us, and then the way you reacted… it wasn't that hard to piece everything together. But Roxas… please listen to what I'm about to tell you, okay? And promise me… that you won't forget it."

Roxas made a noncommittal noise in his throat.

"Roxas. Promise me."

"…I promise," said Roxas dully.

"Good. Then... I guess the best way to put this is that I understood a lot of what that Sora thing was telling us. I felt the same things for a long, long time. I was cold, lonely, afraid, homesick... I wanted out… I wanted things to go back to the way they were… whatever the cost. But now that we have some idea of what that cost was… how do you think I feel?"

Something within the pit of Roxas' stomach twisted uncomfortably; he hadn't considered that aspect of the situation. He felt a stab of shame.

"My point…" continued Xion quietly once she had decided that Roxas wasn't going to answer, "is that you can't let that guilt consume you. Because… it will. It'll devour you. It'll rot and fester until it's the only thing in your world. Believe me, you don't want that. I don't want that. I've felt that pain, dwelt in that darkness… please believe me Roxas, you don't want that."

_'I worry about you all the time, Roxas.'_

Roxas reached up into the darkness and felt around until he found the warmth of Xion's cheek; he brushed his thumb tenderly across the smoothness of her skin, smiling to himself.

"You're… an amazing person, Xion. You know that? You've always been impressive to me, in a lot of ways… but you've grown. I've been noticing that more and more recently. You've become strong. Unbelievably strong. I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of you or how lucky I feel that you… that we…"

"Part of that strength is your own," replied Xion gently. "I never would've found my way out of that darkness if you hadn't been there to guide me. You will never… never understand how grateful I am to you, or how precious you are to me."

Silence settled between them. There was a soft rustle of movement, and then Roxas felt Xion's lips pressed against his own. He kissed her back, tenderly. He felt his face grow warm when her kisses began to wander to his neck.

"Xi… wait, we… Axel…" he protested feebly.

"Axel won't be bothering us," breathed Xion in reply.

It was much later when the two of them decided to return to the campsite. When they emerged from the trees, hand in hand, they found that two tents had been erected around the dwindling fire. One was already closed; Roxas thought that he could just make out Lea's snores from the other side of the canvas. The other sat open and vacant; Roxas and Xion's packs had been placed to either side of the entrance.

"What kind of situation is this?" asked Xion dryly.

"Not… not a bad one," replied Roxas sheepishly. He glanced at Xion out of the corner of his eye while he scratched his cheek with his free hand. Xion sighed in mock resignation.

"Well… looks like we don't have a choice. This is entirely Axel's fault for hogging the other tent all to himself."

"It is," agreed Roxas, grinning faintly.

Once the flap had been zipped shut behind them, a lone ember drifted purposefully away from the fading bonfire. It floated about the campsite serenely, curiously. Had any been present to witness such a thing, they would have sworn that they had seen Sora appear ever so briefly; his eyes, still heterochromatic, marked him as a separate entity… yet he was whole. His flesh had been knit, his wounds mended… and he wore a smile that put the fire to shame with its warmth.

And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the figure vanished, disintegrating into shards of light that winked out of existence with nary a whisper.

The first ember had been rekindled.

* * *

*** Version notes: Revision 1.2**

*** AN - And so begins the Embers arc. I hope that you guys will enjoy reading it as much I'm going to enjoy writing it.**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	27. Embers: Audience with a King - Part I

Embers: Audience with a King – Part I

Day 03: The Home of Dragons

-Xion-

* * *

"What… what happened here?"

The grand plaza was a smoldering devastation of splintered wood and jagged rubble. Ruined pillars stretched upward toward the overcast sky, clawing at unseen stars. Xion thought that she could smell smoke. Roxas, frowning intently as he surveyed the destruction arrayed before them, dismissed their Corridor of Darkness with a flick of his wrist; it collapsed inward with a faint pop.

"Heartless?" asked Xion quietly.

Lea, arms folded, shook his head.

"Don't think so… heartless kill readily enough, but… I've never known them to wreck a place like this. There was Hollow Bastion of course, but that was-"

"Is that a person?" asked Roxas suddenly. He pointed toward a distant speck darting uncertainly from pillar to pillar. It seemed to be making its way toward the once-magnificent palace that crowned the plaza. Given the degree of damage, Xion couldn't even begin to imagine how it was still standing, but there could be no doubt; the figure had cleared the debris field and was now sprinting headlong toward the crumbling steps that clung to the front of the structure.

A sudden impulse pulled Xion's gaze to the eastern wall of the plaza; Roxas and Lea, seeming to have felt the same uncomfortable jolt, turned their heads in unison. No sooner had their attention settled on the ravaged stonework than it exploded inward with a deep _thrum _that Xion felt within her chest. A could of smoke and debris billowed into the plaza. Heartless, a swarm of heartless, an army of heartless, a sea of heartless, poured through the breach in its wake. The distant figure, still running for all it was worth, glanced over its shoulder and stumbled. The heartless roared toward him as he tumbled to the ground.

"We… we have to help him," said Xion haltingly upon recovering from the shock of seeing so many heartless gathered in one place. "But he's so far away that I don't-"

Lea silenced her with a furtive tap on the shoulder. When she looked up at him in curiosity, he nodded toward the wall where the Heartless had broken through. It took her a moment to figure out what it was that he wanted her to see, but her gaze eventually snagged upon another figure sitting atop the wall just above the breach. Its arms and legs were crossed as if in boredom. They were too far away to clearly make out the figure's appearance, yet…

Roxas grunted, dissatisfied with what he was seeing.

"What d'you reckon?" said Lea evenly.

"Probably," said Roxas distractedly. "That hair… but there's no way that's Sora. He wouldn't be sitting there when- he's moving." The figure had risen lazily to its feet and was now looking down upon the horde of heartless, arms still folded. The air around the figure began to shimmer and distort, and then a Corridor of Darkness materialized just above its head. The maw wavered uncertainly, and then rotated so that the abyss was angled toward the heartless. The figure made no move to leave its perch.

The heartless, Xion suddenly noticed, had halted. They now stood halfway between the two figures, filling the plaza with guttural grunts and chirps and squeaks; their attention, without exception, was focused upon the figure atop the wall. Taking advantage of the situation, the other figure scrambled to its feet and ran unsteadily for the palace. The heartless, if they happened to notice their victim's escape, chose to ignore it.

Thunder rumbled in the distance.

There was a blinding flash of violet light as something silver and blue erupted from the Corridor of Darkness and streaked toward the heartless.

"Keyblade?" was all that Xion had time to say before the object slammed into the center of the horde of heartless with an impact that sent a wall of dust and debris racing outward in a ring. The scene disappeared in a blinding flash of violet. Xion thought that there had to have been an explosion, but if so, she was unable to hear it. She was unable to hear anything, she realized suddenly; her ears were ringing painfully. As the light faded and her vision returned, the question of what earlier horror had befallen the plaza was answered.

The heartless were no more. In their place smoldered an impossibly wide crater riddled with cracks and fissures that bled purple light. A horribly familiar Keyblade sat in the center of the crater, smoking ever so slightly, its blade thrust deeply into the earth.

"Ultima," said Roxas faintly.

None of them were able to say exactly when he had appeared, but the Sora-like figure was suddenly standing beside the Keyblade, drawing it out of the earth. Xion blinked, and then the figure was striding purposefully toward them, Keyblade held loosely at its side. She blinked again, and it was nearly upon them. She could see a grin spreading across its face beneath mismatched eyes of blue and amber. Panicking, she flung her hand out to the side to summon her Keyblade.

Nothing happened.

She looked at her hand in confusion, and then back to the figure. It had halted some five meters away. Ultima was held loosely in its right hand, the tip hovering just above the ground; in its left hand, however…

"No…"

The figure twirled Xion's Keyblade idly around one of its fingers. It grinned at her cryptically before dismissing it with a lazy flick of its wrist; it reappeared in Xion's outstretched hand with a faint chime. It was then that Xion noticed the crown perched at a haphazard angle atop the figure's tangle of spiky brown hair. It was small and looked to be fairly new; it bore no device or ornament, but had been wrought in the shape of the Kingdom Crown that sat on the end of her and Roxas' Keyblades.

The necklace that Sora often wore was present as well, though it too shone gold rather than silver. The figure's clothes were similar to Sora's own, though they were a great deal more ornamental and seemed to be decorated with a crown motif. The figure noticed her stares.

"Let me guess what you're thinking right now…" it drawled in a lazy voice that sounded eerily similar to Sora's own. "This magnificent vision of power and majesty must be a piece of Sora's heart… oh, but which one? Sadness doesn't seem to fit, and anger, well… I must confess, I do have a bit of a problem with my temper, but no… Fear, certainly not, and while we're at it, let's go ahead and eliminate envy as well. I sense the light of one of my brothers, so loneliness is accounted for… I suppose that just leaves…"

The figure smirked as it sketched a mocking bow. Ultima's keychain tinkled brightly as it brushed across the ground.

"Pride."

* * *

*** AN - Also know as the "what if Sora was actually a badass?" sub-arc. Classes are beginning to pick up, so chapters will be farther apart than in the past. My apologies. More to come!**

*** All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix unless otherwise noted.**


	28. Embers: Audience with a King - Part II

Embers: Audience with a King - Part II

Day 03: The Home of Dragons, Grand Plaza

-Roxas-

* * *

Thunder rumbled in the distance, yet the plaza was utterly silent. Roxas stared at the figure's exposed neck in bewilderment, unsure of which question he wanted to ask first. Close to his right, Xion inhaled as though to say something. Roxas looked at her in curiosity, but she seemed to reconsider and merely shook her head when she noticed his gaze. Lea, standing to the far side of Xion, folded his arms in obvious impatience. His gaze, Roxas noticed, was locked firmly upon the figure's Keyblade.

Upon realizing that his introduction wasn't going to receive a response, the figure sighed in resignation and straightened to his full height. Ultima winked out of existence with a lazy flick of his wrist. "… And so," he continued airily, "I welcome you to my kingdom, such as it is. I must apologize for the state of things," he added, turning his back to them and staring out at the smoldering devastation of the grand plaza. "This world is my garden, yet I find myself woefully bereft of gardeners to tend the weeds. Thus it falls to me, but I am rather…"

"Heavy-handed?" blurted Xion. Roxas looked over at her in alarm and saw Lea cover his face with his hand. Seemingly oblivious, Xion snickered. "Well, I think you got the weeds, but…"

The figure turned to look at her in disbelief. It appeared to Roxas as though it was unsure of how to react. After a moment, it settled on an arrogant smirk and folded its arms. "Come now… is that any way for a peasant to speak to her king? If I want you to… that… why are you looking at me like that?" For Xion was gazing at the figure with an expression that was equal parts bemusement and disdain. Roxas thought that it looked alarmingly similar to the look he received whenever he unknowingly said something embarrassing.

"Hey… Xion," he began, leaning close to whisper in her ear, "don't you think that we should-"

"So you can use a Keyblade," said Xion dryly, ignoring Roxas. "So can we. You're better at it though… I guess that means you… inherited Sora's ability? Something like that?"

The figure blinked in bewilderment. It held its hand out to the side as though to summon its Keyblade, but reconsidered when Xion smirked. "… That is… not incorrect," the figure admitted, letting its arm drop to its side. "But nonetheless, my ability greatly surpasses that of Sora. Perhaps due to my lack of any of his inconveniently inhibitive morals, I was granted absolute mastery over the Keyblade when I was separated from his heart. That is why I bear Ultima, the mark of-"

"The mark of great power and majesty, we're sure," interrupted Xion. She shifted her weight and placed one hand on her hip defiantly. "You're really selfish, you know that? I don't know why you think being skilled with the Keyblade makes you fit to be a king. Look at your kingdom. What good has your ability to swing a Keyblade around really done? You can eliminate heartless, sure. So can we. So can Sora. And Sora can do so without bringing everything around him to ruin."

The figure absorbed all of this in silence, its face impassive. After a moment, it looked around at the plaza once more, its gaze snagging on the smoking crater it had created only minutes before. Roxas flinched when he felt the warmth of Xion's hand enclose his own. He looked at her in curiosity, but she was staring fixedly at the figure as it continued its inspection of the plaza. She was, he noticed with a start, trembling ever so slightly. Her hand was damp with sweat.

Finally, the figure returned its gaze to Xion. Its expression was unreadable.

"I could… destroy all three of you with very little effort," it said in a surprisingly tired voice.

"You could," agreed Xion.

"You're no match for me, alone or together."

"We're not."

"I can protect this world… better than Sora could. I'm stronger than he will ever be. Stronger than any number of heartless."

"You are. But…"

The figure continued to stare at Xion, unblinking. Xion returned the gaze in silence. Finally, the figure bowed its head and turned away from them. "I will think on it."

The figure began to walk toward the palace. Roxas blinked and took a step forward. "Hey wait a minute, we still have a lot of questions to-"

There was a horrible shrieking sound that seemed to make the very air tremble, and then the sky vanished behind a sea of darkness. Xion jerked him backward hard enough to make him stumble; he avoided losing his footing due only to Lea's hand between his shoulder blades. He turned to say something to Xion, but found her gazing upward at the sky, eyes impossibly wide. Roxas followed her gaze and-

"Merlin have mercy."

Corridors of Darkness littered the sky. Roxas thought that there had to be thousands of them; they completely enclosed the plaza in a dome that thrummed with barely-contained threat. A sudden wind kicked up, throwing a wall of dust into their faces. Holding his free arm over his eyes, Roxas was just able to make out the figure striding away from them, hands in its pockets. Its crown glimmered in the otherworldly glow given off by the Corridors overhead.

"I said… that I will think on it. Begone. I will locate you when I have reached a decision."

Roxas began to shout something else at the figure, but another Corridor suddenly opened between them. He felt a hand that no doubt belonged to Lea grab a fistful of his robes and shove him bodily inside.

* * *

***AN - Been a while. This semester is nearly over, so I should be able to get things rolling again soon. Apologies for the absence. More to come!**

***AN2 - Most characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix.**


	29. When the Night is Darkest

When the Night is Darkest

Day 04 - Location unknown

-Roxas-

* * *

"_What's the matter? Did you not like it when she did this?" _

Knives of pain ripped through Roxas' chest when he tried to draw a breath. Not for the first time, his vision shrunk to a hazy pinprick of light in a sea of darkness. Someone was talking to him, he knew, but the voice sounded… and he was so tired… if they would just leave him alone…

He coughed, and felt something warm splatter across his cheek.

"… xas, please stay… some… help…"

He wanted to count the stars. They were so beautiful; why had he never noticed that before?

"Roxas! No, no, don't… your eyes, look… me…"

Blinking seemed to take an eternity.

When he next opened his eyes, the world was shrouded in semidarkness. The soft glow of a candle called to him from somewhere to his right, but the act of turning his head sent a paralyzing jolt of pain racing down his spine. He maintained consciousness only with great difficulty; the effort left him panting quick, shallow breaths, each of which felt like a dagger tearing into his chest.

_What happened to me?_

He racked his memories for some clue as to what had led to his present condition, but the effort was nauseating. Pulses of pain stabbed at his temples.

"Roxas?"

He instinctively tried to turn his head and immediately regretted the impulse. When he had caught his breath, he managed to croak a faint reply that was all but swallowed up by the darkness. He heard a quiet rustling from somewhere close to his left, and then Xion's face swam into view above his own.

Roxas stared.

Even by the standard of his present condition, he thought that she looked awful. Her face was swollen and puffy; half-healed cuts swept from her left ear down to the corner of her mouth; one eye was ringed with a brilliant purple bruise that shone in the candlelight. Her mouth pulled upward at the corners, but it was faint and pained, utterly unlike her normal smile. Roxas wondered idly how bad his face must have looked.

"Axel… beat us up again?" he managed after a time.

Xion offered no reply. Roxas felt his hair, slick with sweat, being smoothed away from his forehead. "Xion?" he repeated groggily.

He heard her sigh. The hand on his forehead halted.

_Something's wrong._

"Roxas…" she began uncertainly, "I'm about to tell you some things… that I'm not sure you're going to understand. I just want you to know that I don't have all the answers and I'm not sure what to… what we need to do next. You need to recover, but… after that…"

"We'll… figure something out," said Roxas awkwardly, puzzled by her uneasiness. "Always do. Where's Axel? Does he know every… everything you're about to tell me?"

"Roxas…"

"Is he… he isn't… is he alright?"

Roxas felt Xion's hand leave his forehead. The gesture made him feel strangely lonely.

"Axel's fine," she replied in a voice that surprised him with its coolness. "He's… doing his own thing for a while, as he phrased it. He seemed to think… well, I'm not really sure what he was thinking. It looked to me like he was just tired of tagging along with us, but he said that that wasn't it at all, and that we'd simply cover more ground if we split up… idiot," she added vehemently.

Roxas was dumbfounded. He felt a sharp stab of pain in his heart that had nothing to do with his injuries. "And so he… he abandoned us?"

"… Yes."

"Then these injuries…"

"That happened right after we were separated. He stayed behind in that other world with that Sora… pride… thing. We were attacked _inside _the corridor we used to escape. I didn't know that was even possible but… are you sure that you don't remember any of this, Roxas?"

Roxas made a quiet noise of dissent in his throat. "Noth… nothing. I remember Axel shoving us both into that corridor, but after that…"

Xion was silent for a time. Roxas wanted desperately to ask more questions, but he felt an odd sense of drowsiness beginning to seep throughout his body; he was shocked about Axel's apparent desertion, certainly, but the pain made it difficult to collect his thoughts. He wondered vaguely how badly he was injured.

"Xion…" he asked faintly, "am I going… to…"

He felt the warm pressure of her hand return to his forehead.

"Silly…" she replied in an unsteady voice. "Of course not… you wouldn't… wouldn't leave me alone again, would you?"

She sniffled, and that was the last thing Roxas heard before sleep found him.

* * *

* AN - More to come!

* AN2 - Most characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix.


	30. Count the Stars

Count the Stars

Day 15 - Hollow Bastion

-Roxas-

* * *

Night, ebon wings unfurled in starry splendor, hung crisp and clear over the deserted streets and alleys of Hollow Bastion. Somewhere, no doubt, a cat was yowling its displeasure; perhaps an owl, gaze locked upon a flicker of movement that only it could see, was ruffling its feathers in agitation. Maybe a half-drunken businessman, lost in a haze of alcohol and unaccountably missing a shoe, was currently stumbling home. Roxas thought that such things were likely happening outside the suffocating confines of his sick room. He had found, as the days had crept by, that he had developed a curious fascination with the mundane events taking place in the outside world. He had communicated as much to Xion, but she had merely smiled and told him that they both had more important things to be concerned with.

He was restless. Though still far from fully recovered, Roxas was at last able to move without experiencing excruciating pain. He was lucky, Xion had told him upon finding him sitting upright in his bed, to be able to move at all. From the way that she described the seriousness of his injuries, it sounded to Roxas as though he had come alarmingly close to dying. He was unsure of what exactly had taken place when they were attacked; he did recall, quite vividly, that the corridor they had been traversing had suddenly gone completely and utterly dark. After that, the pain… so much pain… no sooner had the light been snuffed out than something set upon them in the darkness, snarling and snapping and clawing. Blinded, they had been defenseless.

They had both been injured in the past, of course; bumps and bruises and sprains were an unfortunate reality when one bore a Keyblade. However, never had either of them been defeated so thoroughly. The knowledge that there was something out there against which they were powerless chilled Roxas to the core; helplessness was not a sensation that he had often felt.

He was roused from his thoughts by the familiar groan of his bedroom door swinging inward. It would be Xion, he knew, returning with food. She had taken to venturing out into the streets on a nightly basis; it was safer, she had explained, to gather whatever supplies they needed at night when fewer people were about. Roxas hardly suspected that there was anyone in Hollow Bastion who might bring them harm, but as she was doing all of the work, he had agreed to it.

_Not that I really had much say in it anyway,_ he thought bemusedly as Xion squeezed through the doorway with an armful of paper bags that were undoubtedly concealing broccoli and cabbage and a multitude of other things that Roxas detested. His stomach growled loudly in complaint. Xion pushed the door closed with her foot and glanced upward in mild surprise; she smiled when she saw that he was sitting up.

"That hungry huh?" she teased. "Guess that means you're feeling better than you were when I left." Roxas smiled sheepishly, watching in mild curiosity as she crossed the room and placed the food upon a rickety oaken table that sat beneath their solitary window. He eyed the nondescript bags suspiciously.

"I wasn't able to find much," said Xion distractedly while she moved about putting things away. "The place I've been going was out of almost everything. The owner said that he wouldn't have anything else until tomorrow morning, so I can always go back then if we feel like this isn't enough. I'd rather not, but…"

"It's fine," said Roxas reassuringly. "I'm not worried about having enough, but it… well… it might not hurt for us to stop by in the morning anyway. I don't think there's anyone in Hollow Bastion who'd-"

"Us?" said Xion sharply, cutting him off. She turned to face him and placed her hands on her hips. Roxas snorted back laughter at the way her forehead wrinkled when she tried to affect a scowl.

"Yes, us," he replied lightly. "I'm tired of being cooped up in this place. Do you know how long it's been since I've felt anything resembling fresh air?" He flexed his shoulders and rotated his arms experimentally, doing his best to ignore the flash of pain that raced up both sides of his neck. "I'm not… as bad as I was before, and lying in bed all day isn't really going to help, so going for a walk… I don't think it would be a bad idea."

Xion had listened in silence, her scowl slowly softening. Roxas thought that, were he in better condition, he would actually be able to see the deliberations taking place behind those uncertain azure eyes as they roved over his body, taking assessment of things that only they could see. At last, Xion sighed in defeat. "Fine," she breathed, relenting, "But if you start feeling bad at all… if you're unsure, if you want to-"

"Xion," said Roxas gently, interrupting her, "I'll be fine. I won't break."

Xion stared into his eyes in silence, her expression unreadable.

"Tomorrow then," she finally said, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, "which means that you have to be a good boy and rest tonight. Understood?"

"Loud and clear," replied Roxas meekly. "Before that, though… what did you bring back? I'm starving."

Much later, after the food had been cleared away and preparations made for sleep, Roxas found himself beset by an odd feeling of apprehension. He said as much to Xion as she was preparing to turn off the lights, but she merely smiled at him before extinguishing the last of the candles. Roxas felt the bed mattress compress beside him a few moments later. His left side began to grow warm as Xion carefully snuggled up against him in the darkness. Their present situation was not wholly unenjoyable, he reflected as a small, warm hand wormed its way into his own, yet he felt that they had spent far more time than they could afford in hiding while he recovered. They had been unspeakably lucky to find an abandoned, yet relatively clean shelter in which to stay, but the sheer convenience of it pricked at him. He had the vague, unshakable feeling that they were coming alarmingly close to overstaying their welcome.

He considered relaying his suspicions to Xion, but the slow, deep breaths close by his ear bespoke a peaceful sleep. Roxas was faintly irritated by her unnatural ability to fall asleep so quickly and effortlessly, but he saw no reason to wake her with his troubles. Instead, he contented himself with nuzzling his head closer against her own, and that was how sleep found him.

Dawn came all too soon.

* * *

***AN - Pleased with this one. More to come!**

***AN2 - All characters and locations are the property of Disney and Square Enix.**


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